The Alpha Tenno
by Skylion992
Summary: A legendary Tenno wakes up from his cryopod in a universe full of war and despair. Armed with a legendary Warframe, the aid of his fellow Tenno, a special someone and the guide of the Lotus, can he right what's wrong? Join on his adventure as he reveals dark secrets, finds out his true power and falls in love. Violence and sexual content later on. (Spoilers for... everything)
1. Prologue: The Dragon Awakens

**Prologue: The Dragon Awakens**

 **Credit goes to Organic-Mechanic on DeviantArt for the amazing cover, check out his other Warframe related art! This prologue is the normal tutorial for Warframe. I've changed some things like the dialogue, starting warframe and the way some events go, but it's pretty similar to the normal starting quest so this might be a bit boring for veterans or people who have done this multiple times, but bear with me will ya?**

 **Adding some more info to this, it will contain all the normal-game story elements, though they will have major changes sometimes, and also quests/events made by myself. I'll rate this M just to make sure.**

 **By the way, English is NOT my first language, so please do correct me where I make a grammar mistake or mess up words.**

 **I don't own Warframe, anything about the game is credited to Digital Extremes.**

 **See you at the end with some more notes and ideas.**

 ** _Italics_** **is for locations or messages.**

 _They were called Tenno. Warriors of blade and gun: masters of the Warframe armor. Those that survived the old war were left drifting among the ruins. Now they are needed once more._

 _The Grineer, with their vast armies, are spreading throughout the solar system. A call echoes across the stars summoning the Tenno to an ancient place. They summon you_.

Tenno…tenno, wake up! Why aren't the cryochamber's defense mechanisms working?" shouted a desperate female voice.

"Finally, after so long, we got a live one. Open up the cryopod my brothers, for today we finally found an inactive Tenno Warframe, and a rare one at that!" announces a raspy, old-sounding voice with cheers in the background.

After said announcement, the cryopod's "doors" opened and from it fell a metal humanoid figure, oddly reminiscent of a Dragon from orokin children's tales. The "warframe" seemed to have some kind of double-armour, the one on the outside looking like the pelt a hunter wears, in this case of a dragon-looking being, and under that a knightlike figure, although hard to identify because of the outer armour.

"That's it, I'm manually surging your Warframe's systems back on, losing you is bad enough, but I will not allow you to get captured."

As soon as the voice stopped, the metallic figure aquired a red and blue sheen, which kept pulsating for a few seconds. Seeing the movement as a potential threat, the Grineer all raised their weapons and pointed them towards the Tenno.

Vor, knowing what's happening, quickly put a strange device on the warframe's neck, which started stopped the pulses before letting them start again, then moving back to the platoon of Grineer waiting for his signal.

As the warframe started rising, everything was flooding back into its mind, memories, while some broken or livid, they all came back to the mind of the Tenno in the matter of seconds. After the intense event, the mind of the Tenno instantly puts the pieces together, realising the situation and starting to think of a battle plan, seeing as there is no other choice.

Although weak, the humanoid anemically starts rising before the beast stood at a height of roughly 2 meters and a quarter, towering over most of the Grineer Lancers. The General knew that the Tenno was trying something suspicious so he was prepared to give the attack order at any given second.

"Tenno, can you hear me?" says a voice in his head. "I am the Lotus, I will explain later the meaning of all of this, but for now allow me to guide you. You cannot fight in these conditions. Allow yourself to be captured and I will help you the best I can when the moment arrives." it said in a soothing manner.

The Tenno, seeing as it won't fruitful to fight in these conditions and ignore the only thing that seems to be friendly, looks towards the most high-rank looking Grineer, which in this case is Vor, and bows his head to show that he won't be a threat.

A Grineer Trooper started slowly walking towards the warframe with a pair of electric cuffs in his hands, before struggling to put said cuffs on the warframe's arms while being intimidated by its cold gaze and height. After the deed was done, Vor gave the Tenno one more look before telling an Elite Lancer something in the Grineer language and leaving.

After the General was well out of reach, the warframe's comms burst to life with the voice of the Lotus: "Now is the moment Tenno, I have unlocked your warframe's easiest to use ability, /b/Spectral Scream/b/. Channel your energy into your warframe's mask and use it to burn your enemies to the ground."

The warframe's face somehow twisted into a animalistic-looking smile before the whole metal carapace started to glow in a fire-like red and being projected in front of the user's visor like a flamethrower, burning the closest Grineer Lancers to a crisp, then redirecting the fire to the cuffs in order to melt them off. The other Grineer began shouting directions and some running towards the warframe, while others towards the nearest Control Panel. "Tenno skoom! Legger te pereme- (Secure the perime-)" tried to shout the Elite Lancer as the Tenno channeled energy into his fist and punched a hole straight through his face.

"Tenno, you need to get out of there. It is not safe for you to stay in combat for long durations right now. I'll mark the way on your warframe's HUD." calmly stated the Lotus. A Red smoke-like trace started being visible leading towards a path, which the warframe user could only guess was the way towards extraction.

While running along the red line, the draconic beast channeled his energy into his legs, enhancing his speed and mobility. Wanting to try new moves on the way, he started a slide followed by a powerful jump which led to him using Bullet Jump, helping him clear a good bit of distance in just a few seconds.

"Tenno, take a left for a second here." said the Lotus. Obeying, he stopped before entering through one of the weirdly structured Grineer doors. Inside, there was a sign in grineer, although his memories helped with some letters, he had to guess the others and got "Confiscated". There, he found an arsenal of weapons from most races, although the only interesting ones were the Tenno's.

Deciding to take an Assault Rifle "Braton", the " Kunai" and the "Skana", the Tenno continued on his way to freedom, with minor interruptions from the Grineer that were quickly put down due to the Tenno's amazing marksmanship.

As soon as the Tenno got outside, a squad of Elite Lancers were all waiting and pointing their guns at him and what looked like a landing site with a Tenno Landing Craft, although a powered down one. Suddenly, out of the sky came a Liset, disrupting the Lancers' aim and allowing the warframe user to make quick work out of them using finishers from behind. Although it looked like the draconid won, Vor, had other ideas, and, with a squad of Grineer troops, he shot down the Liset with a Golden Key-looking device.

"Damn it, I should've seen that coming. Tenno, I'll get you a new Landing Craft quickly, just survive for as long as you can while I work on powering the dormant one. And do NOT fight Vor in this state." said the Lotus, obviously starting to lose her cool.

The Tenno, although carefully, began valiantly slicing and shooting every Grineer coming in contact with him, while also dodging Vor's Golden Key lasers. After 4 minutes which felt like hours of attacking and defending, the warframe's comms burst to life again with Lotus' voice: "Tenno, the ship is nearly powered, get ready to move quickly once it is."

Knowing what's about to happen, the warframe user parkoured his way towards Vor, before knocking the key out of his hand, and throwing it as far away as possible, then ran back to the ship as it started rising. He immediately back-flipped in the ship's human-sized slot made for extraction, which rotated, moving the warframe into the Landing Craft, then nearly instantly shooting into space, all the while being shot at by Grineer troopers and Vor trying to power his just-found key.

 _In the Landing Craft_

"Operator! You're alive! I thought I lost you back when I was shut down by those Grineer scum, it's so good to see you" said a robotic voice over the ship's speakers and warframe's comms. "Operator…do you remember who I am? Ordis? The ship's cephalon?" said the voice in a sad manner.

Suddenly, everything about the ship came back to the Tenno's mind. After a solid minute of remembering and living the memories, he finally looked up and nodded, hoping Ordis can see.

"Oh that's such a relief! I thought we had to go through all that again for you to remember." said the cephalon gratefully. "Though, you see, I seem to have lost some segments and my whole inventory got looted by those thieves."

"Tenno. How do you feel?" asked the Lotus, concern apparent in her voice. "It is time I explained what's happening to you and what you will need to do." continued the self-proclaimed guide.

"You are a Chroma user. Your warframe is legendary in therms of rarity and usefulness. It has the capability to take and give immense amounts of damage. Your special passive ability is why it was named Chroma in the first place. Go to your Arsenal and I'll explain more in depth." The Tenno walked over to the arsenal and awaited further instructions.

"On your HUD, select the Appearance tab and change your energy colour into one of the main elements' colour. Red for fire, blue for lightning, green for toxic and white/black for ice." The warframe user chose the black energy colour and exited the Arsenal's HUD. "Now try using your first ability." and, to his surprise, instead of the intense fire, he started spewing out black, cold smoke, which created black ice on one of the Liset's walls.

"You see, Tenno, these elements do more than that for you. Every warframe has atleast 4 known unique powers. Yours has 4 too, Spectral Scream, Elemental Ward, Vex Armor and Effigy. Elemental Ward also gets affected by your element, for example fire gives health to you and your allies, ice is armor, toxic is status and reload and electricity is shields. Vex armor gives you Armor for the cost of damage to Shields and Damage for the cost of damage to Health. The last power, your "ultimate", is Effigy, which I'll let you discover on your own like your other 2 abilities." explained the Lotus.

"As you saw here today, there are new races trying to take over the system and galaxy as a whole. There are 3 major factions, the Grineer, Corpus and Infested. You'll meet the last 2 when the time is right. As you and Ordis might remember, in the Old War we fought Sentients and then the Orokin. That war is long gone so you do not need to bother your mind with it." said the Lotus with a nearly inaudible "Hopefully", which raised a few questions in the Operator's mind.

"Our goal is to help this system get better, bit by bit, until it's pure and normal like it used to be, not infested by all these criminals and dictators. Check navigation when you're rea-" stopped the guide suddenly. The warframe's HUD started glitching for a few seconds before Vor's face appeared with a smirk. "You thought it was over, Tenno? Oh ho ho, you're in for a threat. By the end of the day, you'll be my mindless slave thanks to Grineer technology. You cannot escape our superiority. You will be mine." As soon as the dialogue ended, Ordis started talking impatiently "Operator, what does he mean by that? What has he done to you?" But the Lotus had other ideas.

"The Ascaris bolt." she responded quickly. "It cuts off the transfere- the warframe's power and weakens it until it cannot fight back. We need to get rid of it. Tenno, go to navigation. I marked your map with details of the mission, we need to get Ordis' foundry segment and the others in order to be able to craft the Ascaris Negator."

"Oh Operator it's just like old times! Let's go on a mission together again." spoke the cephalon excitedly. "Commencing space travel..."

 _E Prime, Earth_

"This is a Spy mission, locate the enemy data vaults and steal the needed data, preferably without being seen."

Taking the "without being seen" as a challenge, the Chroma user stealthily walked through the tileset, avoiding all interaction and taking out enemies without making a single noise.

Once the first vault was in sight, the Tenno got to work, hacking into the control panel and sneaking inside. Seeing too many lasers on the floor, he parkour's his way across using a combination of wall-running and bullet-jumping. Only one Grineer Trooper was standing in the vault, defending from potential visitors. Or atleast was until he got sliced in half with the Tenno's Skana. Quickly hacking into the vault, he got the required segment out and went out the now-open main entrance into the vault.

Repeating the same process for the other 2 vaults, the Operator passes like a shadow in and out of vaults then in the same manner as when he came here, goes on his way to extraction.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Impressive, Tenno, but do not underestimate the Grineer." praised the mysterious woman. "I have tracked down a Black-Market merchant, one sympathethic to our cause, imprisoned in a Grineer cell for the same reason. We must go and rescue him as he can provide useful information and weapons."

The Operator nodded and walked to the navigation segment, kneeling in front of it and choosing the path for Ordis to take.

 _Mariana, Earth_

"This is a Rescue mission, move in and out as quickly as you can. Find the target and rescue them without being seen. Be careful, if the wardens detect you, they will surely initiate the execution process. Good luck, Tenno."

Cracking his neck and knuckles, he sprinted towards the target on his minimap, killing every Grineer on the way or passing the ones that haven't seen him.

"Behind these doors is the rescue target. You know what you have to do." Nodding, he quickly pressed the button on the panel to open the door, as time slowed down and he used his silent kunais to kill the 2 Grineer guarding the door. Moving silently, he saw the Warden standing by the cells. He didn't have enough patience so he sprinted and tried to use his finisher on the Warden. Unfortunately, the Ascaris bolt started working again when he was within reach of the Warden. The Tenno fell on his knees clutching his head, which led to the Warden turning behind and spotting him. With all his might, the Operator raised his Braton and gunned down the Warden, but not before he alerted everyone of a warframe's presence.

After the Ascaris bolt stopped, he realised the alarms have been sounded and Grineer are converging on his location, while the execution timer is ticking down. Hacking into each cell panel one by one, he finally found the merchant in the second to last cell.

"Darvo's the name, friend. I'm guessing your Lotus sent you, right?" At which the warframe nodded. "Not the talking type, eh? Give me a weapon, I can defend myself too." Lending Darvo the Kunais, they went out gunning and running to the extraction point, with more and more Grineer being alerted by what's happening and trying to stop them.

After the last batch of Butchers and Lancers, they both got into the Craft and Ordis activated space travel to get them out quickly.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Alright Tenno, here's my part of the deal, the Ascaris Negator blueprint." said Darvo gratefully.

"Thank you, Darvo. Tenno, we need to get Ordis' foundry segment back now in order to be able to craft it. I'll mark it on navigation."

Suddenly the Acaris bolt starts working again with Vor trying to corrupt the Tenno's mind: "Tenno, Tenno, do you really think you control your energy? You poor ignorant soul. You do not control the energy. **You are the energy**. Your warframe is just a glass through which you project said energy. No matter, soon you'll be mine."

"Tenno, are you alright?" asked the Lotus. "We need to get rid of that Ascaris bolt fast or it will be too late. Go to navigation now."

 _Mantle, Earth_

"This was once a place full of colonists and activity, now it was reduced to nothing because of the Grineer. Find the segment and give them as much mercy as they gave the colonists. None."

Finally, after so many missions with stealth and speed, the Tenno can take his time and enjoy eradicating the Grineer threat in this colony and also make use of his powers.

First 2 Grineer instantly froze into solid black ice. The ones that saw them got a bullet through their eyes and the others a stealthy sword in the back.

Next room, 8 grineer scattered around, some conversing while others careful of their sorroundings. Standing behind the door, the Tenno reloaded his Braton and blasted the door open with his foot, directly killing one of the Grineer standing in front of it, with the others being in shock for a few seconds before taking battle positions.

Knowing their strategies already, the Tenno shot down 3 unlucky ones still in shock leaving 4 alive behind cover. Flipping over one of their barricades, he sliced open the throat of a Grineer mid-air before landing on another one and curbstomping him. As soon as he heard the Lancer's neck break, he took a Kunai and hit another Lancer trying to sneak up on him right in the eye. The last one was in a corner crawling away from the Tenno, begging for mercy in his native tongue, but got instead decapitated by his Skana.

"There it is, Tenno. The foundry segment is in the storage containers. Take it and eliminate the rest of the Grineer." said the Lotus.

Once the Chroma user took the segment, Grineer all came out from hiding at the same time, shouting in their native language at the Tenno, a Commander pointing at his gun then making a cutting throat motion with his finger. The Tenno do not take kindly to threats. In an instant, the Commander was face to face with the metallic beast, and then in the next second his throat was cut open by his opponent's Skana. The Grineer instantly opened fire, but that's when the warframe got a sudden burst of energy and the user felt empowered. Chanelling all of his energy into his aura, then molding it like armour, he used **Elemental ward** and got a surplus of armour, which made the bullets that hit him drop like they hit pure steel.

The remaining Grineer started running away from the beast that was slaying all of their brethren without even flinching.

"Good work Tenno, now get to extraction."

 _Orbiter, Space_

"There is one last step Tenno, we need to go to a Grineer settlement and steal the remaining resources needed to complete the Ascaris Negator. I'll mark it on navigation. Time is running short."

 _Gaia, Earth_

"This is a Salvage mission, take any kind of resource you see, we'll need them for our cause and we'll also limit the Grineer from theirs."

This should be easy the Tenno thought. Get in, take everything and get out.

Container after container, locker after locker, he took every resource he could find, killing the occasional Grineer on the way and making sure no more come.

"Too calm for your taste? Don't worry, we'll get back to serious business soon. For now, go to extraction."

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Go ahead, Operator. Craft the Negator so you can be free!" excitedly said Ordis.

Heading to the Foundry segment, the Operator selected the Ascaris Negator and waited for it to craft. After 1 minute, it's done.

As the Tenno grabs the Negator, Vor's comms come on as he transmits one last message: "What a waste." Ignoring him, they use the Negator on the bolt and find out something even worse. The bolt had a failsafe on and now it activated its self-destruct sequence.

"That's it Tenno, we cannot avoid this anymore. Vor must be stopped. Redirect Ordis towards the direction I marked. We are the ones hunting him now. We need to upgrade the navigation segment to allow travel to Mercury."

 _Pacific, Earth_

"Find the segment, Tenno, and do it fast. Use any means necessary."

In a flash, he disappeared off to the marked location, ignoring any Grineer possible then killing those that get in the way. Survival is the number 1 priority and right now, his survival chances are ticking down.

After just a few minutes of high-speed dodging and killing, he finally got to the segment, took it then moved out towards extraction without waiting for further instructions.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"We are ready now, Tenno. Though before you go, you should equip yourself the best you can, mod your weapons and warframes to their limit. Vor is no push-over."

"Commencing space-travel. Good luck, Operator."

 _Tolstoj, Mercury_

"This is it, Tenno. The end of your first mission. Do not allow Vor to come out alive of this or there will be many more like you. Happy hunting."

Cracking his knuckles and powering his armour, he got to work. Slicing Grineer left and right, though mindful of time, he slowly but surely made his way towards the only thing standing between him and freedom.

 _With Vor_

"Sir, our troopers have detected a warframe slowly advancing towards us. Should we evacuate?" said a Grineer Elite Lancer, hiding his terrified face behind his skull mask.

"No. Let him come. I will end him myself. It is time he saw what you can do with the power of the void."

 _Back to Chroma_

This is it. Behind this door is the source of his weakness and pain. Just a control panel to hack and he can fight it.

The beast punches the Control Panel using his ice armor, breaking it in half and opening the doors in the process.

 _(Recommended battle music: Apashe - I'm A Dragon Feat. Sway)_

Slowly walking in, he saw spotlights lighting up a platform in the middle, with Vor waiting there, his hands behind his back.

In a millisecond, the warframe bullet-jumped towards him, breaking the ground under his feet in the process.

"I see you're not dead yet. You are a resilient one, aren't you? You might make it on my wall of fame, well, your head might. But no matter, I'll end it here." said Vor in an obviously forced calm manner.

A wild growl came from the warframe as his systems went in overdrive, shaking the base with the power of his energy and making Vor wince.

Seeing Vor distracted, the dragonic beast sprinted towards him, holding his sword in his hands like a professional. Vor, coming back from his small moment of fear, blocked the attack using the armor on his wrists, then attempted to strike the Tenno back, but the Tenno was already back flipping, then holding the Trigger on his Braton and unloading his magazine on the Grineer General, forcing him to cover his unmasked head, temporarily blinding him in the process. Jumping upwards then coming down with the Skana, Chroma hit Vor in his back, cutting a bit of his armor open.

"That's it! I'll show you power!" said the General as he took the key from his chest, powering it up towards the Tenno. "Die, worm!" he shouted as the laser started tearing through everything in its path to reach the warframe.

Suddenly, the Tenno felt the familiar energy burst, but this time he channeled his energy into his shields and health, using **Vex Armor**. When the beam hit, it continued firing for a solid 10 seconds before stopping. Waiting to see what remained of his opponent, Vor waited out of the smoke. In the fraction of a second, a hand came out of the smoke, grabbing Vor by the neck and lifting him up, out coming the full body of the warframe, steam rising out of its armour and glowing a menacing red, shortly put, he looked **pissed**. Holding Vor in the air, the Tenno looked him directly in the eyes, and seemed to have said "Die." before using Spectral Scream on his head, freezing his head into solid black ice before throwing Vor on the ground and curb stomping his head, smashing it into tiny pieces of ice, with the Grineer watching the battle quickly scurrying away and leaving their weapons behind.

"You did it, Tenno. You avenged your brothers and sisters and freed yourself. You can now choose your path and what you want to do. Go to extraction." proudly stated the Lotus as the Tenno was strolling towards the extraction point in the now-empty base.

 _Orbiter, Space_

When the Tenno got in the ship, after the congratulations and praise from Ordis, he got notified of a message from the Lotus:

 _"Your New Mission_

 _Tenno,_

Now that you have freed yourself from Vor and his Ascaris, you have a new mission, one of your own making. Know that I am only your guide, you are your own warrior, you decide what battles to fight. Allow me to suggest a course of action:

 _Seek out like-minded fighters, Tenno are more effective in groups._

 _Execute missions and alerts on the Star Chart to open new paths of exploration._

 _Use the credits you earned in battle to buy blueprints in the Market, then hunt down resources and craft those items in your Foundry._

 _Customize your weapons and Warframes using the Mod bench. Different enemies are vulnerable to different combinations of mods, experiment to discover the most effective loadouts._

 _Finally, stay alert. The Grineer and Corpus are tireless and you are the only thing standing between them and total domination of the Origin System._

 _I am counting on you, Tenno._

-The Lotus

 **Phew, finally done with the Prologue for my story, 4.4k words in 1 chapter! If this seems rushed, keep in mind that I had to make sure it doesn't get repetitive and that I don't focus too much on the stuff most people have been through. From now on, the story will be more from the Tenno's PoV. There will be the normal warframe quests, but also some special adventures created by my mind for the story to be fresh. I don't know fully how this story will go, but I'll try to keep it rolling until its done, since one of my main reasons for this is that I find it annoying when an author interrupts the story mid-way without giving some kind of ending.**


	2. Chapter 1: Tengus Dillema

**Welcome back to the 1st proper chapter of my story.** **Now, as I said, not everything will be canon so you will see some changes to some parts of the original questline, some for easier writing and others just for better (IMO) story elements.** **Without further ado, let's get into it.**

 **Italic is for thoughts and locations, bold is for important stuff.**

 **I don't own Warframe, credit to Digital Extremes for it (just making sure).**

"Welcome back, Operator." greeted Ordis. "I felt your warframe's systems power on so I knew you must be ready to continue with our cause after some well-deserved rest. Oh I cannot wait to see what else will we have to fight and discov- Oh? Operator, you received a new message."

Opening his HUD, the user is greeted with a message from the Lotus, although a worrying one.

 _Tenno,_

 _We have intercepted and partially decrypted a disturbing Grineer communication. A Grineer doctor by the name of Tengus claims to have uncovered some sort of new bio weapon. We have few details but the message originated out of Terminus._

 _You need to go there and investigate._

 _-The Lotus_

"What's that say? Investigation? Oh this should be fun, let's start right now!" excitedly hurried the cephalon.

 _Chroma's PoV_

 _If I could roll my eyes, I would… sigh… Ordis can be so annoying sometimes but I cannot judge him._ _Well, better get this mission out of the way. Who knows how dangerous this "bio weapon" is if the Lotus wants me to do something about it._

 _Normal PoV_

With a new purpose and mission, the Operator walked towards navigation before giving Ordis the coordinates to the first clue.

"Mercury? Oh I hate that planet, it's so hot it always overheats my systems." said Ordis losing morale.

 _M Prime, Mercury_

"This is a Spy mission, Tenno. You know what to do. Data vaults, stealth and caution."

 _Chroma's PoV_

 _I gotta say, I'm not the most enthusiastic about stealth, going around enemies and all that, but if that's the best approach, I'll do it._ I think as I run towards the nearest data vault. _Damn, they couldn't be further away could they? Oh well. Atleast the first one is always close._

The first vault, as always, is the easiest one. Easy hacking, easy breaking in, nothing a machine made for war can't handle.

 _Alright… 2 Grineer inside the vault, a single destructible scanner. Piece of cake._ I say in my mind as I enter the room, shoot a kunai into the scanner on top of the door then destroy the electric mine below it, killing the Grineer nearby. With just 1 alive, I equip my Braton and pop his head in a shower of blood

 _I have add, I'm not the edgy type but the way their heads pop is pretty satisfying._ I think while hacking into the control panel.

"That's one down Tenno. Watch out, Dr. Tengus' assistant knows you're here now. A platoon of Grineer troops are converging on your location." suddenly started the Lotus.

"Akre, akre, hu'uus kafre… (Alright, alright, I'll check…)" I hear one of the Grineer waiting outside the room say.

 _Shit… Should I go guns blazing or try a more creative approach? Ah who am I kidding._ I ponder, before checking my Braton's ammo and preparing my Kunai. _Time to go to work!_

 _After a completely one-sided battle_

 _That was surprisingly easy… Well then, I don't have all day so better get moving._

After parkouring around and slicing a few unaware Grineer, I finally spot the second data vault. _That's weird, all the main doors are shut down… and the vents lead to some kind of conveyor belt that's being checked by scanners. I don't think I wanna try that…_ I contemplate as I lean on a glass wall. _If only… hold on._ I activate my Elemental Ward for ice armor and then use Spectral Scream on the glass overlooking the vault. _Here goes nothing…_

I crack my right knuckle before moving my arm back in a striking position, before I hit the frozen spot with all of my might, breaking the whole frozen spot and most of the glass with it. _Sure ain't ice resistant. Bet they didn't expect ice on the hottest planet. Also, no sensors on the glass? Really?_ I chuckle quietly as I get to work on the panel.

"Tenno… there are infested bio signatures moving towards you, they have apparently broken free from quarantine. Move fast and get the last vault. You do not want to get overwhelmed by them."

 _Infested? Hold on, what?_ Suddenly, I hear a high-pitched scream outside as the base goes on full alert. Opening the door, I find what looks like a battlefield for the forces. Grineer on the left, trying to hold against what looks like a mess of organic tissue and limbs but failing miserably, and on the right, a wave of incoming creatures like the ones attacking the Grineer except… taller? Some look like they're important and have lived for ages, others like they were just assimilated and could be put down by anything with more mind than it.

"The tall ones are Ancients, age and feeding has made them strong. They provide auras for their fellow infested. If you want to take the horde out, aim for them first." quickly briefed the Lotus.

 _Fantastic.. Now I have to deal with them too. They don't seem to have armour though, so slash weapons should do just fine, unlike for Grineer which have armour. I should probably just ign- Oh shit!_ Suddenly, one of the ancients tries to grab me with some kind of grappling hook, but I activated Vex Armour just in time, getting a boost in armor and damage from all the toxins around, so I grab his hook, pull towards me with incredible strength and quickly pull out my sword, slicing the ancient in half.

 _Yeah I should probably just run to the 3rd Vault_ I contemplate for a second

 _Normal PoV_

The 3rd data vault isn't necessarily harder, but you do have less time to recover the data if it gets purged.

"This the third Data Vault, Tenno. Hurry, before the Infested redirect their attacks towards you, you don't want to be in the path of the hive mind right now." hurried the guide.

Inside the last Vault there were 3 Grineer, 2 patrolling and a Trooper inside, also a scanner at each door.

The Tenno, with acrobatic prowess, jumped along every wall, waiting just above a door before killing the Grineer standing near it. Equipping his Kunai, he shoots one at the scanner and breaks it. Next, he hacks into the control panel nearby, calling down an elevator that seems to be blocked by a scanner-like wall. The Grineer Trooper, being a little suspicious about the elevator moving, walked over to the pit and looked down to see a bullet pierce his helmet and straight into the brain.

"That's the last Vault done, hurry back to extraction. Just to quickly brief you: the Infestation was created by the Orokin to counter their enemies, but it backfired and they attacked their Orokin masters too, assimilating everything in their hive mind. Do not take them lightly." warned the Lotus.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Where's our next stop, Operator?" asked Ordis curiously.

The Tenno selected the place for their next mission. Time to exterminate this menace from the planet while it's still starting, but first, he needed to make a few changes.

 _Terminus, Mercury_

"This is an extermination mission. Kill everything that moves. They don't have a mind of their own, Tenno. No mercy."

 _Chroma's PoV_

 _Finally, I get to test these boys in proper combat. Let's see what they're capable of_.

First 5 infested, cut down in 3 moves. Next 7, shot before they had time to react. _This is easy... Where's the big horde?_ Well ask, and you shall receive: I hear a few inhumane loud screams in the distance, seems like the hive mind spotted me.

 _Let's test my new colour at that. Fire should do just perfectly against flesh, eh?_ I excitedly think as I activate my Elemental Ward, feeling a boost in health and then my Spectral Scream, burning down everything in my path like a living flamethrower. I bet the whole base was smelling like burning flesh at that point, but nobody is going to miss these Infested creatures.

"Nice job, Tenno. I just found out that Dr. Tengus was testing on their own Grineer marines, by sending them to fight Infested, and apparently the ones with flame-based weapons survived the longest. I sent you a mod for this kind of thing in your base. I think you'll like it." praised me the Lotus.

 _Sounds fun. So fire is indeed their weakness and I wasn't just putting my faith blindly._ "

8 Infested left, all scurrying away after their ancients are dead and the hive mind here is broken. _Can't blame 'em_. I think as I pursue and kill the rest of them.

"Good work, get back to extraction. Someone has something for you."

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Hello, my metal friend. You see, you really helped my a lot that day by rescuing me and killing all those Grineer. So I wanted to reward you. But how do you reward a mute beast that can kill anyone in this system? With a voice module of course!" excitedly greeted me Darvo.

 _So I'll finally be able to speak and not just think? Sounds pretty useful to me. But wait, how does thi-_ "How does this work, Darvo?" asked Ordis.

"Well, you see, the Lotus briefed me about the transfere- er I mean the warframe's communication system being there but not actually working. So I took the freedom to craft a blueprint for you. But since it seems you're busy, I just crafted you the whole thing! So thank you again, Tenno and come by my shop in the relay from time to time, I have the best deals for your race!" explained the merchant.

 _Tha-_ "Thank you, Darvo." I spoke. (Imagine the Owl voice from the customizable Operator voices, but deeper.)

"Wow, now we can have proper conversations about the Cosmin background radiations and make puns!" _Kill m_ e... I sigh.

 _Lares, Mercury_

"Tenno, this is a Defense mission. You need to defend the cascade bomb we've placed on this Asteroid's power core. It should completely eliminate the Infested threat from it. Defend it for 10 waves. Good luck."

"Oh, this should be fun." I say sarcastically as I hear high-pitched screams in the distance./

 _6 waves later_

"It's been surprisingly easy and all of the sudden they send weirder infested like the ones that spew out little worms or more Infested spawn pods. They're really getting pissed off, aren't they?" I said exasperatedly.

"Just keep defending, Tenno. You're almost there. They'll keep sending tougher units." answered the Lotus

"Looks like I'll have to use my powers, then." I say as I use Elemental Ward to keep them at a distance while I cut down their brethren. /i/Hopefully this is all I'll need./i/

 _3 more waves later of cutting down Infested_

"One more wave. Do not falter now." encouraged the Lotus.

Same routine, multiple chargers and a few ancients, with the occasional boiler or brood mother. Until half way, at least. I suddenly hear a very loud scream, one different from the others I've been hearing from Infested. "What? A juggernaut? I thought they only come on much more Infested planets like Eris. Watch out, Tenno. This one is full of armour and his weak spot is on his stomach. You might want to avoid it, the mission is nearly done.

"Screw that!" I say as I activate Vex Armor, then go face to… whatever that is with the juggernaut. "Let's see who is the real juggernaut, eh?"

Letting him charge into me a few times and hit me with his "bullets", I wait for my Vex Armor to maximize. With each hit to my shields, I feel less damage, with each hit to my health, I feel more pissed. And right now, I'm royally pissed. "Alright, that's enough playing." I shout as I give a draconic growl and grab the juggernaut by both sides, lifting him into the air, then bringing him down into my knee with all the force I can muster, breaking him in half. _I don't know if I've overdone it or if he was just weak, but damn that felt good_.

"Good job, Tenno. That was an amazing display of force. The wave is ending, as killing the juggernaut destroyed the hive mind here. You should go to to extraction before the bomb explodes."

 _Orbiter, Space_

* **BOOM*** I look out the window to check the damage done, only to see the asteroid base completely normal.

"The Cascade Bomb uses void power to kill every organic life nearby without damaging the structure. Pretty impressive, huh?" says Ordis, marvelling at the wonders of science.

"It is pretty impressive." I agree.

"Oh? Operator, you have a new message:

 _Tenno,_

 _The Cascade explosion worked and the asteroid has been purged of infestation. But I'm afraid this threat cannot be so easily contained. Doctor Tengus' experiments with this plague are grossly irresponsible and have threatened the entire system. All that is needed is an infected ship to reach a populated area and we'll be unable to contain its spread. There's no controlling it, the Grineer will be in just as much peril as we are._

 _To prepare you for this new fight I have sent you something that should prove effective against this menace. Let us hope you will not need to use it._

 _-The Lotus_

"Hell yeah, I just got a heat sword blueprint, and I already have the resources for it. Ordis, craft it in the foundry."

"Right away, Operator." responded the cephalon. "By the way, what's our next move, Operator?"

"Well I was thinking we could go and get one of your segments back, starting with the incubator one. I could use a companion, you know."

"Ugh, I hate those mutts, they're always dirty and walking around my ship, but I can't deny their loyalty and usefulness. The segment is located in…"

 _Unda, Venus_

"This is a Survival mission, Tenno. Survive for as long as you can while one of our operatives raids the place for supplies. They will cut down life support to try and choke you out, I'll send air support to keep you breathing. Quick briefing: the corpus use laser weapons mostly, their robots' weak point is their fanny packs, they're weak against magnetic or just frost/electricity in general and impact weapons, and last they use shields like your warframe but have little to no armor. Trigger the alarms when ready."

"Noted." I nod and get to hacking. Good thing I changed my energy type before coming here knowing I won't be fighting infested anymore, so now I have ice again.

"Here they come. Good luck, Tenno, and survive for at least 5 minutes."

"Ekpetsitape koypipey, Tot pke yotkuy! (Eliminate hostiles, for the Corpus!)" I hear outside from some of the Corpus crewmen.

"Here goes nothing." I whisper as I start firing around the corner at the nearest crewman, filling him with bullet holes. "Jatttasey! (Warframe!)" shouts one of the Corpus crewmen upon spotting me.

"Oh shut up." I say as I put a bullet in his helmet, but it doesn't go through and instead takes his helmet off. "That's odd. Good to know their helmets are that thick." I put another bullet in his head to make sure he is down.

As I hear a weird robotic screech, I look where the crewmen came from to see 3 robots with "MOA" initials written on them. _Fanny packs. Right._

I dive around the corner to think of my strategy, then activate Elemental Ward and jump in the middle of their arrow battle formation, then proceed to rip off one of their fanny packs, putting the robot out of commission, with the other 2 firing back at me. I sweep down and the bullets keep firing but they hit the other robot instead of me. "Artificial Intelligence my ass, even the Infested had better tactics."

Finally leaving the room, I run through the corridors, destroying the cameras that see me so I don't get shot down by their turrets. As soon as I open the next room, I see a pretty tall MOA that lifts its leg, then brings it down with incredible speed, creating a shockwave and making me fall on my back, then starts shooting my while I'm down. Luckily, my shields last enough for me to grab the MOA's leg and hurl it into the nearest wall, then rip out its gun and stick it in its fanny pack, overheating the MOA. Unfortunately, the MOA held me back enough for reinforcements to arrive, behind me standing like 20 Crewmen with guns pointed at me. The robot starts overheating even more so in a split second I throw it in the group of Corpus, killing the ones in the middle and forcing the others to dive for cover, which gave me enough time to swiftly move over them and put them down with my Skana.

"Huh, maybe I should just stay somewhere while they search for me, seems easier than to just fight the endless waves of robots." I say as I hide up on some lockers in a dark corner, putting my hands behind my head and laying down on them.

After 2 minutes, the Lotus reminds me of why I am here: "Tenno did you forget your mission? You're supposed to distract them. Also, your life support is running low. Go to the nearest life support station to get it back up." _Goddamn it._

"Might aswell go out now before I run out of life support." I sigh and check my Braton, then turn on Vex Armor.

As soon as the door opens, I get spotted by about 7 MOAs and 20 Crewmen. "Come on, piss me off so I can make your death come faster." They instantly start shooting me as I pick them off 1 by 1, damaging me which leads to me killing them even easier and faster, while also collecting their personal life support modules.

"Tenno, the 5 minutes are up, you can go to extraction."

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Oh wow, Operator… that's uh… that's a lot of blood. Good thing it's not yours. You might want to clean your armor using the Arsenal option. It releases some spores than clear any kind of unwanted bacteria. How do you think I keep the ship so clean?" said Ordis amused.

"Well that's pretty convenient, but first I'll install your new segment."

As I place the segment, the incubator bursts to life and a HUD appears, telling me what I need to do. "Incubator Core… Kubrow Egg… Stasis room… Well, I know where we are going next, Ordis.

 _E Prime, Earth_

"This is an Exterminate mission. You know what to do."

"Alright, find Kubrow Dens, find Egg, kill Grineer. Seems like a normal day at this point." I murmur.

"Operator, I marked on the map the last known locations of Kubrow Dens. Be careful though, these are feral Kubrows. They will attack you if you get too close." warned the cephalon.

Moving from wall to wall and tree to tree through the settlement, killing the usual Grineer I pass by, I finally get to the Dens and see some Kubrows on the outside, scouting. I approach them cautiously, crouched, in order to not appear too dangerous.

"I don't want to fight you. Do not make me do it." I warn them even though I know they don't understand. I see an egg shining in the light going in the Den so I approach cautiously while watched by the feral Kubrows. As soon as I touch the egg, I get bit by one of them on my leg, then by multiple on my hand and body but I activate Vex Armor to try and tank the damage instead of attacking them, trying to see this from their point of view. Slowly but surely, I get the egg out but I still got a few Kubrows biting me so I activate Elemental Ward too so the ones biting me instantly freeze, hopefully temporarily.

"You got it, Operator! Now quickly finish your mission and return to the ship. The Kubrows will attack anything on sight since you've enraged them, Grineer included." said Ordis.

 _Good to know._ I lead the Kubrows trying to bite me into the nearest Grineer squad and attract their attentions so I let the Kubrows finish my mission for me while I run to extraction.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"This thing is weird, isn't it, Ordis? I thought Kubrows were mammals… oh well. The next one is the incubator core. Should be ea- 100,000 credits?! That's my whole fortune! And what's an argon crystal?." I ask bewildered at the price and requirements of the core.

"The argon crystal can be found in a void tower I believe, Operator. Do not worry about credits, we will get a lot more on our "adventure"."

"Alright then… where is this void tower you speak of, Ordis? Actually you know what, direct the ship there. I'll get some stuff ready."

 _Orokin Tower Hepit, Void_

"A new mission type, Tenno. Capture is based on the mission name itself: capture the marked target and bring them in for questioning. Happy hunting."

"I nearly feel bad for the target." _Oh well, time to try out the Heat Sword the Lotus gifted me._ As I pull out my sword, it instantly lights up in flames, then reducing to just a red blade on a handle, looking like "solidified" fire.

Deciding to not waste time with easy enemies, I run straight for the capture target, destroying a few containers on the way looking for the argon crystals.

"Capture target on sight. Do not let them escape." suddenly said the Lotus.

Seeing the red dot on my HUD, I run over to the capture target and drop kick him as he turns around "Got'cha asshole." I cheekily say as I thrust the Heat Sword into him, destroying his shields and making his innards burst in flames. "No, please don't, I'll give you anyth- AAAHH" desperately shouted the target as I put him in the special disk I found on the Landing Craft used for transporation of prisoners.

"Oh what's that you were carrying? An Argon Crystal? Well thank you for your kindness, sir."

"Good job Tenno, I got him. We'll interrogate the captive back at base. Your job is done here." praised the Lotus.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Alright Ordis, I got everything we need. Is the incubator ready?" I ask my trusty ship cephalon.

"Sure is, Operator. Ugh, I am not awaiting the arrival of that disgusting creature."

"Come on, how can you not like a Kubrow? I understand he might make a mess, bite some of your circuits or just make loud nois- yeah I see where you're coming from. But no matter, I still need a trusty companion. Begin the incubation process, Ordis."

"Incubation process has begun, Operator. It will take maximum 24 hours."

"Alright. I think our work in these 24 hours was enough. I'll go replenish my warframe's energy. See you in like 8 hours, Ordis." I say as I go to my Arsenal and power down my warframe. _Damn this was a pretty hectic day_.

 _9 hours later_

"No.. the sentients must… dealt with.. if you don't… I'll go alone…" I hear in my mind. _Huh?!_ I instantly take a battle position, then realise I'm in my Landing Craft.

"Operator… are you okay? Operator?"

"Yeah… yeah, Ordis. Just a weird vision I had. How's the egg going?" I ask my ship's cephalon.

"Still a lot of hours until it's done. You could rush it, but the system needs Platinum in order to function at its best, and that's one of the hardest resources to find."

"Oh, you mean the things I got from the Salvage mission back at the Earth colony? I can spare a few of them on my trusty companion I'm pretty sure."

"Alright. Rushing incubation now."

Instantly, the egg started moving and cracking, before revealing a small black Kub, with golden fur linings in the shape of a lotus on his head, continuing along his body in elegant lines. "We can rush the time the Kubrow requires to mature without using any resources, Operator."

Ignoring Ordis, I crouch down and pet the little Kubrow, with him leaning his head into my hand and wagging his tail. "Alright, do it."

The tiny animal curls into a circle while he is encapsulated in a metallic half-circle, which releases some smoke into the dome and then retracts, revealing the mature Kubrow.

While still having the same pattern and colours, the Kubrow now has grown to full size, surprisingly nearly as tall as me, which basically is the size of a Grineer Trooper. He's also got a slightly muscular body, but mostly athletic which gives him a sleek look. _Now this is a beast._

As soon as the Kubrow opens his eyes, he jumps on me and starts licking me while happily barking.

"What should you name him, Operator? He's a Sunika Male Kubrow, bred for hunting and fighting." Ordis informed me. "Hunting and fighting? Alright, I can definitely roll with that. Name him… Wyvern. Seems like a fitting name for the companion of a "Dragonslayer", eh?" At that, the dog seemed to bark happily at me. _Atleast he likes it._ "Let's put that collar on you boy."

"Hey, Ordis." I begin, "Where are these other Tenno the Lotus spoke of? Surely we must have a base or something where we can meet up, right?"

"Oh, I remember where some of them are! The nearest one is the Laruna Relay on Mercury, should we go there?" asked Ordis excitedly at the prospect of meeting other ship cephalons.

"Yeah, if I'm to go after the big guys, I might need some back up. And who else than other Tenno?" I say as I kneel in front of the navigation console, waiting to be transported towards this so-called "Relay". _Here goes nothing_.

 **I try as hard as I can to not make the story too repetitive, but it's kind of hard since Warframe itself is pretty darn repetitive, you know.**

 **On the topic of "Romance", I will include a good bit of romance, since I feel like there has to be a drive for some actions that will later happen in the story, and you guys that have finished The Second Dream know that the Tenno might be pretty susceptible to stuff like romance/love.**

 **See ya in the next one.**


	3. Chapter 2: Wings of Glory

**I'll use the names of the Warframes from time to time as the name of the actual user of one to make it easier, you know what I truly mean. Keep in mind most of the warframes h** **ere are beginners, so they don't know yet their full potential. Also, I'll probably have the story be like a 2-3 chapters a week.**

 **Pretty sure I covered anything else important in the last chapter's author notes, so I'll just say enjoy and I won't keep you back from reading! And please, if you see any writing mistakes, tell me so I can fix them. The writing and formatting on phone is just horrible. I'll get the app so the writing might be improving in the future.**

 **Italic is thoughts, bold is important stuff.**

 **I don't own Warframe, credit to Digital Extremes for it (just making sure).**

"We're here, Operator." Ordis announces as I look up and see a gigantic tower-like structure that seems to be of Tenno-design with the usual colors and looks like it is powered by the same energy that we use.

When we get close to what looks like a docking area, Ordis parks the ship in a vertical manner allowing me to get out easily. Looking around, I see a lot of guards standing at each entrace which seem to have some kind of blue scanners, probably the Tenno equivalent of the Grineer scanners.

As I pass by them, they both give me a glance before turning towards me fully, lowering their weapons and nearly dropping them. I look down towards them but ignore them and just continue on my way. Getting past the scanners, I go through a medium-sized corridor before I see 2 big doors.

Once the doors slide open, I look inside to see the place brimming with life of warframes, leaving me in awe for a second, spotting some different warframes like one with a basic looking design but a horn on it's head, another with a rather squashed looking helmet and a robe-looking armour, one with a horn like a rhino's and looking filled with armor, nearly standing at my height, some obviously female ones like one reminiscent of the first male one I spotted, or another one with a round helmet that has what looks like a design of space itself on the visor. The weird thing though being that there were multiple of each of them.

At the beginning, none spot me as they seem to be discussing something, before one turns its head towards me, whispering something to his friend and making him look towards me too, until the whole room was looking at me in what seemed like awe, until it struck me.

There were no other Chroma warframes. I was probably the first they've ever seen. Sighing, I go down the stairs towards the middle of the room and then I look towards some of them. "What? Never seen a Dragon before?" I chuckle as I startle the group of warframes, before one of them approaches me, this one looking pretty tech-savvy, having gadgets attached to the warframe's armor and a pretty symmetric design on the armor.

"Excuse my curiosity, sir, I am the most-known Tenno here and I have to ask for the rest of my brethren: Who are you? Or better said, what is your warframe?" he asks a bit bewildered.

"Do not worry, my friend, we are all brothers and sisters here as far as I know." I begin, "My warframe is Chroma. The ancient master of the elements and basically a living tank." at which a few whispers escape among the crowd.

"Chroma? I haven't heard of such a warframe before. When have you awakened? Has the Lotus contacted you yet?" he asked, suspicion in his voice.

"Well then now you hear of it. I have awakened about 50 hours ago, or about 2 Terran days. The Lotus has already contacted me when the Grineer General Vor, tried to capture me." I say casually, with a few gasps at the name "Vor".

"Wait, you have met Vor and came out alive? Most of our squads sent to fight him have basically disappeared." he adds, surprised.

"Met? Hah, I basically crushed his head." I reveal with a chuckle, then the crowd errupts with exclamations an question, before being calmed down by the "leader".

"You killed a Grineer General?! And Vor at that?! Ho- full teams of Tenno couldn't do that! Excuse me, sir, but I find that pretty hard to believe. Do you have any kind of proof? We do not take kindly to these jokes, many of us have lost a lot of friends and family to the Grineer and especially Vor."

"Ask the Lotus if you do not believe me. If any of you wish to try my battle prowess, step up now and we will honourably duel." I raise my voice for the whole room to hear me, intimidating most of the Tenno before a few step in front.

"I shall ask the Lotus, I'll be back, until then you may duel with our warriors." said the technician.

"Alright, which warframes do you all use and why do you want to fight me?"

"My warframe is Frost, the master of Ice. I, like these 3 of my brothers, took interest when you claimed you are the master of all the elements and wish to test that claim. These are Ember, Volt and Saryn." the one with a squashed-looking helmet talks and then points towards his 3 squadmates.

"Alright, I'll guess you 4 are masters of Ice, Fire, Electricity and Toxic? Perfect. Which one wants to go first?" I ask while righting myself, towering over the 4 warframes and intimidating them.

"I guess I'll go first." says the Frost user.

 _Round 1, Chroma vs Frost_

Instantly, I throw my weapons away, cracking my knuckles and getting into battle stance while activating ice elemental ward, making my armour get encapsulated in black ice.

"Don't you need those?" asked the opposing Tenno.

"I'd worry about myself if I were you." I say as I make a mocking "come at me" motion with my hands.

His first move was to use what I guess is his warframe's first ability, as he threw a solid ice block towards me, but I moved swiftly and caught it in one hand, then crushed it. Not being discouraged, the so-called ice master hits the ground with his fist, making ice spikes errupt from the ground as I make no move towards dodging. As the spikes hit me, they instantly break due to Elemental Ward's ice armor.

"My turn." I say as I sprint towards the ice user, punching him in the stomach the kneeing him in the head, making him drop to the ground. I allow him to wobbly get up, then I exclaim "Let me show you the true power of ice!" as I activate Spectral Scream and freeze him in a solid block of black ice, then breaking it with a swift kick, making the Frost drop unconscious to the ground.

"That's the first one down, who's next?" I announce as I look at the remaining 3. "That dude completely trashed Frost, I'd not fight that." I hear some people murmur in the crowd.

"I'll go next. Time to see how you can take the heat!" says the girl I identify as Ember.

 _Round 2, Chroma vs Ember_

I approach the little arsenal station and quickly change my colour, going red for the fire element.

Getting into a fighting position and using Elemental Ward, I shout at my opponent: "Are you just gonna wait and watch or are you gonna show me your power?"

"Nu-uh, I'm not making the same mistake as my team mate, you make the first move" she says as she gets in a fighting position.

"Your wish." As soon as I mobilize towards her, she hurls towards me some kind of fire ball, but I quickly swat it away with just a hand movement, then flip over her and burn her using Spectral Scream, making her flinch forward. Before I realise, she sends some kind of fire ash in my eyes to blind my vision. _You've been through worse. Just close your eyes and use sound._ I think as I get back in a fighting position.

I immediately hear her on my right, then send a punch to check for her presence, confirming my thoughts as I hit her armor, then hear her give a scream as my fist melts through her shields because of my Elemental Ward.

As soon as my vision comes back, I see her standing on the ground trying to get up. Walking closer to her I take her hand and pull her up, then helping her walk to the nearest healer.

"The second one goes down too. Which one will be the 3rd?" I say as I look towards the 2 remaining warframes.

"I'll do it. Nobody can survive the intensity of electricity." says the one known as Volt.

 _Round 3, Chroma vs Volt_

Approaching the station again, I switch to purple for electricity, then activate my Elemental Ward for boosted shields and shock armor.

"You're in for a shock now!" my opponent shouts his attempt at a pun, then starts sending bolts of electricity going everywhere.

Waiting for the electricity, I then conduct it with the help of my Elemental Ward and Spectral Scream, making the opposing Tenno violently convulse with electricity. As soon as he comes back to normal, gets into a battle stance then waits for me to attack.

Responding to his silent request, I bullet jump forward, preparing to strike him. Unfortunately, this is exactly what he wanted as he puts down an electric shield that I accidentally hit, temporarily paralyzing my left hand.

"Got you now!" he shouts enthusiastically. "Nah." I disagree as I punch him with my right hand, then hold Spectral Scream on him until I see smoke rising out of his armor, then carry him to the nearest healer as he is violently convulsing, then getting my hand healed too.

"The third one is down. Will you continue and end like your brothers or will you spare me the need to carry you to the healers?" I asked as I looked towards a terrified Saryn, which nodded a clear "no".

"Then that means I've proven my mastery of the elements to all of you. If anyone else wants to try me, step up and I'll make it quick." I project my voice towards the group, as every single one of them take a step back. "Good."

"Chroma, I am back. I have spoken to the Lotus and you were indeed serious. This is a serious achievement, my friend. Know that if you need anything from us that's within our reach, we are in your debt. I'll also introduce you to every warframe we know of." said the technician as he kneels in front of me, before the crowd starts applauding me and I see some of the female Tenno send me blown kisses.

"Nothing for now, don't worry about it." I say with a dismissive wave.

Going back towards the main part of the relay, everyone turns towards me. Before I can ask what's wrong, the one known as Vauban comes towards me. "Chroma, in these hours you've done more for our cause and relay than any of us have. You don't know how much killing Vor or someone like him means for us. So I've talked with everyone and decided that if you accept, you will be the actual leader of our relay."

"But wait, aren't you the leader?" I asked, shocked at the offer.

"No, you seem to have taken my position wrong. I am, as I said, the most known person on the relay by the people here, so I can speak with most of the Tenno here, which leads back to my question, since now everyone here knows about you. Do you accept?" He explained seriously.

"I- I don't think I can truly accept. I'll be gone a lot of the time since the Lotus gives me tasks like the one with Vor so I won't be around the relay a lot like you guys. You are doing just perfect as the "leader" here, Vauban. Continue like that."

"I see… if you want I can be the leader when you aren't here so I can manage around, and you can be the leader in general? Trust me, I'm not too much into leading people, so this doesn't hurt my pride or anything." As I look at the other Tenno around, all of them awaiting a response, I sigh and nod: "Then I accept."

The crowd starts cheering as they now have an official leader of the Relay, then start dispersing into groups and conversing like when I came here. "By the way, what else is on these Tenno Relays? And could you show me all the different warframes that have been found so far?"

Vauban nods, then pulls out a drive from one of his pockets, "This is where I keep the information of new warframes, it is given to every relay in order to unify all of us together. It also says the number of Tenno found using said warframe. Do not worry if you lose it, basically everyone here has this installed in their codex scanners so we can just re-copy it."

"Thank you." Then he continues: "As for what else is here, we have quite a lot of useful stuff actually. First is the Syndicates, which cover quite a lot of stuff so you'd do best to research about them in the codex. Then comes Darvo, on the upper-left floor, he makes weapon discounts for platinum from time to time. After that we have Symaris, well, every Relay has a projection of him. Talk to him in the upper-right floor if you want to know more about him. The conclave, which is a place for Tenno to fight to gain full mastery is led by Teshin on this floor, on the left. Last but not least is the Mission Control room, where you can go together with multiple Tenno and choose a mission to go to from there."

"Alright, I'll go back to my ship and read about all of this in the Codex. Thank you again, Vauban" I gratefully address him before leaving towards my ship, going back through the crowd.

As I go through, I hear some discussions that the Tenno are engaged in. "I know, he's pretty bad-ass" coming from one of the girls' group, "That new guy just trashed our 3 best element-users and scared off the other, what can you even do against someone like that?" coming from one of the normal groups, etcetera. Until I hear something more interesting. "Pffft, we can trash the new guy in the category of armor. Nobody beats us." I hear coming from the "armour" group.

I walk towards them, attracting the attention of the people around me.

"I'm telling you, I'll destroy him if I fight with him. He has no skills like I do." says the one known as Rhino while I stay behind him and listen, looking down at him.

"Uh… Rhino… I don't think you mean that." says a Valkyr, "What, are you scared now? I'll go fight him right now and show you if you don't believe me." Rhino continues

"Let's fight then." I say as my iced breath goes around his warframe and makes him shiver, then turns around slowly, saying "I'm not scared of you." with an obviously scared tone.

"Good. Let's have an endurance contest. You, Valkyr and Atlas versus me. Are you 2 okay with this too?"

They nod.

 _Round 4, Chroma vs Atlas, Valkyr & Rhino_

As the round starts, the first thing I do is activate Vex Armor, then Elemental Ward with ice.

"I ain't got all day." I say as I look towards them and see each using an ability, Rhino using some kind of iron skin, Atlas readying his fists and Valkyr going berserker mode.

The first one to come is Rhino, trying to swing his Fragor at my head, but I swoop down and kick up, hitting him in the chest. Seeing as he doesn't back down, most likely because of his armor, I let him hit me the second time, lowering my shields to 0 and maximizing my armor, then my damage. As soon as I get the enraged feeling from Vex Armor, I kick him through his armor, punch his right arm so he loses control over his Fragor, then keep giving quick punches to his stomach, destroying his armor.

When I'm about to finish him off, I see Atlas approaching me with his stone fist raised. Putting my palm in front of his fist, I encapsulate it and keep applying pressure until I break his hand, making him cry out. As I'm about to punch him, he raises a stone wall and I grab Rhino, then throw him through the wall into Atlas, taking out 2 with 1. Valkyr, not being deterred, jumps at me with some kind of red energy claws, but I dodge and punch, still managing though to cut my left hand. Unfortunately, the state she is in apparently doesn't allow her to take damage, so I quickly back out. Valkyr jumps and the brings her claws down in an X, as I block her hands with mine, then headbutt her, but to no effect, again.

Knowing she must be running out of energy and every power requires energy, I keep dodging her attacks until I see a perfect opportunity. She throws herself at me, but because of my Elemental Ward an her weakened state, one of her claws break, taking out the whole power with them. I slowly lift her by her neck and ask her slowly "Are we done here?" She slowly nods and I help her carry her unconscious team-mates

"Let this be a lesson to all of you. Do not underestimate your enemy. Do not become arrogant. If I was some kind of Grineer General, they would've been dead now. Do not do this on the battlefield. Also, I did this to teach you, not to fear me. I don't want to see any of you have any kind of fear towards me, just respect." I tell the crowd as they applause and then I walk towards my Liset.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"How was your stay, Operator? Did you make any new friends?" asks Ordis amused.

"Well, I found out I'm the only one ever spotted with this warframe, I became the leader of the Relay after beating up some of their best fighters, I made friends with everyone and got a squad-mate that's ready when I need his aid. You, Ordis?" I explain casually, while checking over my Codex and reading about the stuff Vauban told me.

"Uh… I… wow… that's a lot of stuff, Operator. I just talked with some other ship a cephalons…" says Ordis shocked.

"Anyways, I have to read this, so if you'll excuse me, Ordis"

"Oh sure, Operator."

 _Let's see… warframes and weapons… wow that's a lot of warframes. There seems to be a lot of Mags, Volts and Excaliburs around. Huh… there's still some undiscovered? Also what are Primes?… an upgrade to your normal warframe, the original Orokin warframes… to get one you need an Orokin reactor to upgrade your original warframe, a forma on the attribute you want to focus, such as hands for strength, body for armor etc, an exilus adapter and 30 Orokin cells. That sounds fun, maybe I should work towards that on my adventure too. There are some pretty rare warframes huh, like Equinox, Nidus, Harrow… still I'm the only one with a Chroma. I wonder why? And who are the last undiscovered ones? Well, time to get reading on their abilities and the enemies they have scanned so far._

And like that, minutes turned into hours, until I forgot completely about the notion of time.

"Operator, are you still reading?"

"Yeah, Ordis, I just forgot a little about time. Hey Wyvern." I say as my Kubrow comes over and starts cuddling into me, "If I didn't know better I'd say you were a Kavat." I chuckle as he happily barks at me. "We'll go on a mission soon, don't worry. Just waiting for a message from the Lo-" I tell my Kubrow as I get interrupted by a message from the Lotus. _That's convenient_ …

 _Tenno,_

 _The Balor Fomorians are coming but you will be ready. We finally have a working Archwing prototype and I have sent you the blueprint._

 _This is where your task begins. You must recover blueprints for the component Archwing parts._

 _We know these were scattered throughout the system. We also know the Corpus are in possession of a lost Orokin archive, detailing their locations._

 _Recover the archive and then find the blueprints needed to forge your Archwing. Good luck, Tenno._

 _-Lotus_

"Archwing? Are these the so-called wings I read about in the codex? Well this peaked my interest. Ordis, get me to Tessera on Venus. I need to find this archive. Wyvern, I won't take you here since I don't have armor for you yet so wait here and I'll come back soon."

 _Tessera, Venus_

"The Archives should be inside this Orokin Portal, Tenno. Get inside the Orokin Tower, find the Archives I marked on your mini-map, overcharge the Portal and then exit before it collapses, slowing down Corpus research in the Orokin Tower and getting information at the same time." explains the Lotus.

Passing through the Portal, I see the white and gold walls of the Orokin Tower. The first marked cache stands at about 200 meters away from me. _Piece of cake_.

Easily parkouring along the walls, I reach the doors to the cache, hearing corrupted Corpus inside. Readying my weapons, I breach the door and shoot down the first 2 unlucky Crewmen, before throwing my mag and disorienting the 3rd one with it, then punching his head off. One of the Orokin MOAs turn towards me and start firing their lasers, but I dive behind a control panel and the glass of the panel reflects the laser towards the MOA, melting itself. Lastly, the 5 Crewmen remaining start shooting at me, only for them to get beaten 1 by 1 with my heat sword. _Damn, fire really does destroy shields fast._

Admiring my bloody handiwork for a second, I destroy the cache and find an Archive in it, showing the Archwing components for the Odonata. "Good job, Tenno. Now you can complete the second half of the misson."

"Easy there, Lotus. There are 2 more caches. I could find more important things." I say then sprint towards the next cache.

Surprisingly finding no opposition anywhere nearby, I destroy the second cache to reveal a Forma blueprint. "Hell yeah!" I cheer as I pick up the blueprint then look in the direction of the 3rd cache. _This was a good choice. Though I do wonder where did the corrupted go._

Again, finding no dangers except the occasional trap & laser on the way, I suspiciously look around before destroying the 3rd one also, discovering the Archive for a prototype of an Archwing. "The Elytron," I start reading, "Rain down destruction with this devastating Archwing, focused on dealing tremendous amounts of punishment." _Sounds like something made for me._ I chuckle.

Going back towards the Portal, I keep my guard up. Wherever those corrupted troops went, they will find me or I will find them. But yet again, nothing. As I get closer to the doors by the room, a corrupted MOA flies towards me through the doors, but I quickly sweep low and avoid it. _I wanted a fight, well, here it is._

As the doors slide, I see basically a war between the Corpus proxies and the corrupted take place, with the Corpus pushing the corrupted back as more and more troops come through the portal. Trying to avoid getting attacked by the warring factions, I stealthily go to one of the consoles and start reversing the Portal towards the Corpus, allowing me to get out once it's done. Unfortunately, the corrupted are nearly completely pushed back, so all I can do is hope the panel charges faster, since I'll have to open the other one too. But no such luck, as the Corpus immediately spot me behind the corpus, so I activate my Elemental Ward and Vex Armor. The odds weren't looking that good, with about 10 corrupted remaining, against 30 and counting Corpus and 1 Tenno, so I go and hack into the other Panel while tanking the fire coming towards me. After the hack is done, I get back to business, cutting in half the first Corpus that approaches me. 6 more Corpus slowly approach under the shield of a nullifier, knowing that if I get inside my powers deactivate. Shooting a full mag into the shield before it finally drops, I jump from cover and rip off the nullifier's backpack before it reactivates, then break it and throw it at one of the Crewmen. The other 5 look around for cover as I throw one Kunai at each, impaling their arms and bodies to the hand rail.

A big Corpus Tech starts moving towards me, firing his machine gun and chipping slowly at my armor. Deflecting some of the bullets with my Heat Sword, I cut off his hand that's holding the gun, then the other making him kneel, ending him with a decapitation and grabbing his shield Osprey mid-air, plunging a Kunai into its circuits making it overheat, then throwing it into a group of Corpus, killing over 9 of them with one explosion.

When the Portal changes colour, I run and drop-kick into it, killing a Corpus defending it on the other side, then running towards the marker on the mini-map, where I am to fight a supposedly important Corpus Robot for a Void Key, then shut down the portal.

The Robot didn't look too menacing to be honest, basically looking like a robotic Lynx, with 4 shield ospreys constantly shielding it and what lookd like rocket launchers on its back.

"Analyzing threat level: mediocre" it said in a robotic voice towards me. "We'll see who is mediocre when you're a piece of scrap."

Knowing that the first ones that have to go are the Ospreys, I shoot down one of them while running towards the Lynx, jump on the robot's head and then cut the other 3 in a 360 sword movement, then land on the robot's back. Having Vex Armor still active an at its max, I rip out one of its rocket launchers, then press the manual trigger aiming towards the Lynx' leg, making it fall on its broken leg. Quickly moving in front of it, I grab the robot's head and rip it off, watching the Lynx fall to the ground and with it falls the Void Key too.

"Analyzing threat level: vegetable." I mockingly repeat after the robot before sprinting towards the torsion beam device, putting the key in and jumping into the Portal before it collapses, then heading to extraction.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"All in a day's work. How are you doing, Wyvern?" I ask seeing the Kub sad. "Don't worry, I'll get the armor from the market right now."

Heading over to the market in my Liset and checking the Kubrows tab, I look for the best armor for my faithful companion. Finally, I spot a good one. It has armor for every part of the body and spots for the eyes, unlike the other ones, while also having a double layer on some parts like the snout and back, with a scaley design like my own armor. Buying the whole package for DNA stabilizers too, I wait a few seconds before they materialize in front of me and get to work putting the armor on my companion.

"How does it feel, boy?" I ask him as I scratch his ears, and in response I get a happy bark from him.

"Next, we have to go into this well-guarded Corpus ship to find the blueprints for the Elytron Prototype. I'll message Vauban with the location for the Odonata Archwing blueprints so he can copy them for all the Tenno in the lab. Ordis, get me to the location I marked on the map."

 _Kiliken, Venus_.

"This is an Excavation mission, Tenno. Deploy extractors at the marked locations and keep them defended and powered with energy cells. Extract once you have all the parts for the Archwing."

"Right. Come on, boy. We have some Corpus to kill." I say towards my excited companion. "Here's how we'll do it. I'll deploy the extractors one by one, and you bring me the power cells, alright?" _I hope he understood, after all Kubrows are pretty intelligent creatures._

Going from room to room, I go outside the base where I see all kinds of robots and crewmen doing their activities, with the marked point for the extractor being in the middle of them.

Aiming my gun at their Tech, I shoot a few short bursts and he plops down to the ground with a bloody mess as a head, and with his Osprey down by him. Seeing this as a signal, Wyvern goes and rips in half one of their Detron Crewmen, before swatting away a few Ospreys then pouncing on them like a wild animal. "That's a good boy."

As I step on the marked location, an excavator drops down from the sky onto the the ground, drilling as soon as it's here. On its side I see a panel saying "Time: 100 seconds" and "Power: 20%". Quickly realising that 1 power equals 1 second, I wait for Wyvern to bring me cell after cell, each being put into the excavator.

"One down, 2 to go."

Getting to the second one right by the first one, we repeat the same process as before, killing the occasional reinforcements the Corpus send at us.

"One more."

"Watch out Tenno, they are sending in a Bursa." says the Lotus.

 _Bursa? What's that?_ I ponder before I turn around to see a massively armoured MOA mobilize towards me, with some kind of plates in front of its legs and head, with only the gun sticking out.

 _Think quickly… massively armoured front… the back seems pretty open… there's a control panel there too_.

Activating Vex Armor, I let it destroy my shields and then a little me health so I get the power boost, then quickly slide under its plates and legs, grab the control panel, rip it off and then shove it in its gun, making the gun explode in on itself, destroying the head of the Bursa too. "Too easy."

As I'm done with the Bursa, I realise Wyvern was putting the energy sells near the excavator, making it drain power from them and finish excavating. "Good boy Wyvern! You're more intelligent than the Grineer already."

"You got them, Tenno. Ordis constructing the parts right now. Well done."

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Welcome back, Operator. Before you ask, the parts will take about 30 more minutes to complete. The Lotus asked me to tell you to research on those Fomorians the Grineer are building, I marked the place on navigation. Should we go now?"

"Yeah, thanks Ordis. Might as well get this out of the way now." I thank him.

 _Montes, Venus_

"We need to extract any intelligence about the Grineer Balor Fomorians, Tenno. First you must eliminate all the opposition on the ship."

"Good old extermination missions. I'll never get tired of this." I remark. Looking on the left of my HUD, I see about 70 enemies on the ship.

Spotting a crewman, I throw a Kunai which impales through his helmet, attracting the attention of 18 more Corpus proxies nearby. 6 of em charge at me with Provas, falling to the ground like flies after I strike them with my sword in combos. The others, scatter around trying to find cover, then being taken out by my Braton as I riddle them with holes when they get out from cover. 6 more MOAs appear from their lockers but before they can see what's going on, I take them out with short slide attacks from my sword.

"About a third of the way down already. These guys are too easy." I say as I stroll towards the next marked enemies.

While walking down a hallway, my communications come alive and I see the face of what looks like a Grineer Commander.

"You know, I'm done having you Corpus on neutral stance, Frohd Bek. This is where I declare WAR!" he shouts, before someone else, some kind of Corpus General, comes on and starts talking too: "Oh come on, Vay Hek, do you actually think you're in a position to declare war to us? By yourself and whatever Grineer fleet you have?"

"Little fleet? Hah, haha, hahahahahaha. You fool. Have you heard of a Balor Fomorian somewhere before?" the "Councillor" maniacally laughs.

"Wh- Everyone, to the rescue pods! Abandon this shi-" the Corpus says as he gets interrupted by the sound of a giant cannon firing, which shakes the whole ship and nearly makes me fall down.

"Tenno! Vay Hek brought one of the Balor Fomorians with him! Extract now, its cannon can bring down whole fleets in a single laser!" the Lotus desperately shouts.

"Running!" I say as the ship shakes again, slowing me down. Looking forward, I see Grineer Lancers mercilessly slaughtering the Corpus troops. _I don't have time for this!_ I shout in my mind as I jump over the Grineer, before they turn around and start shooting towards me.

"The extraction point is too far away, the ship will collapse before you get there. Ordis, send the archwing."

"But Lotus, its still a prototype, we haven't gotten around to testing it!"

"Does it look like it matters? Send it quickly."

Hitting a dead end, I stop and look around for some kind of escape, since my mini-map is glitching due to the Fomorian fire shaking the whole ship. While looking around, the glass in the room above me breaks, starting to chip away at my life support. When I thought all hope is lost, I see a projectile moving at high speed towards me. Instinctively jumping, it attaches itself to my back and restores my life support. "Perfect timing, Ordis." I say thankful, then fly into space trying to get used to the controls.

"Let me check the powers this thing has for a secon-" "I am Project 37, Elytron. I have a single purpose. Destruction." it started mechanically speaking in a deep voice. "I am the first Orokin Archwing prototype to date that has its own AI and can speak. I am guessing you are my Operator." the Archwing surprises me even more by addressing me and actually trying to make a conversation with me.

"Yes. I am your Operator but you can call me Chroma, after my warframe." I say slowly.

"I understand. What is our current mission, Master?"

"You see that gigantic ship that I am looking at? We need to dodge its laser which can destroy a whole fleet and go towards the extraction point marked on my mini-map."

"Understood. You have control. My powers are: Bloomer, Core Vent, Thumper and Warhead." it said without waiting.

"Oh, that sounds just beautiful." I say, marvelled at the prospect of using a Tactical Nuke in space against my enemies, then start going at full speed towards extraction.

Unfortunately, the Grineer had other plans, as they sent manned ships after me. Taking out my Imperator from the Archwing's holster, I hold down the trigger and watch them explode like fireworks. One of them manages to sneak up close, so I unholster my Veritux, looking a second at the gigantic blade before using Elytron's boosters to slice clean through the ship. "Ooh this really satisfied my bloodlust."

Dodging the lasers, I get near the extraction point, before a ship distracts me, putting me exactly on point with the incoming laser. Quickly activating my Vex Armor which seemed to cover the Archwing too, I put all my energy left into the Veritux knowing I can't dodge, and cut the incoming beam in half, seeing my energy drain from my HUD, I use the Archwing's energy too, but it isn't enough, as the last few seconds of the beam take out all of my energy and it hits straight into my chest, pushing me back a few dozens of meters. Surviving on the Archwing's life support alone, I fly to the extraction point as fast as I can before I pass out inside the warframe slot.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Ugh… my chest" I groan as I lift myself up inside the Orbiter. "For how long was I out?"

"Operator! You're alive! I mean… I always believed in you! You were only out for 26 minutes and 38 seconds. 39… 40…" Ordis continues in a monotonous robotic voice.

"That's enough Ordis, uh.. thanks…" then I spot Wyvern sleeping by my side. _Poor guy probably thought I was done._ I scratch him behind the ears, earning a yawn from him, until he fully opens his eyes and pounces on me, licking my armor. "Yeah, yeah. I missed you too, bud. I'll have to get some kind of Archwing for you too, you know." I say as I get up.

"Well then, this was a full day. It gets weirder and weirder, huh, Ordis? I'll have to check the Relay again and tell them about the Archwings and the Balor Fomorian on the move and more being produced. They will surely try to target a Tenno Relay at some point."

"Smart move, Operator. You should probably rest now, as that laser left quite the scar on you, psychically and physically." Ordis recommends me as I look down on my left side of my torso, seeing a huge burn mark all over it and part of my shoulder.

"Yeah, see you later Ordis." I say, powering down my warframe in the Arsenal.

 **Well would you look at that? Over 6.5k words and counting, folks! Starting to get the hang of this. Don't forget to review. The truly juicy stuff will come as our favourite Tenno goes up in experience and "levels", so to speak. By the way, when Vex Armor gets activated I imagine Chroma goes into full-rage mode, basically like a Tenno version of doomguy.**

 **See you in the next one.**


	4. Chapter 3: Knowledge is Power

**Chapter 3's up! Nothing new to say here, except that this might feel a little repetitive (Goddamn spy missions, how do you write them without using the same elements for the most part?) enjoy reading and remember:**

 **Italics is for thoughts/locations or timeskips.**

 **I don't own Warframe, credit to Digital Extremes for it (just making sure)**.

"Ooh, Operator. You got a new message from the Lotus. What if it's a new mission?" Ordis gives me a heads-up.

"Alright, alright. I'll check." Opening my palm, I open up the HUD and check my inbox.

 _Tenno,_

 _I have been following the location of some knowledge called "Arcane Codices" for a while now, and I just received information that the Grineer were just about to get the last one, before a thief identified as Maroo stole it from them. My contacts claim she has been last spotted on Mars, hiding in the Corpus base Tharsis. I trust you will capture her. We will extract the information from her to find where the last fragment is located. I know you're capable of even more than this, Tenno, so I'll contact you again once I find the location of said fragment._

 _-The Lotus_.

"You saw the location Ordis, let's capture this thief. I'm interested myself into what these Arcane Codices contain."

 _Tharsis, Mars_

"Alright, time to go hunting. Can you get her scent, boy?" I ask my companion as he starts sniffing the air, before running in a direction in which I guess resides Maroo. "Watch out, Tenno. Maroo won't go down without a fight. She might have some tricks up her sleeve if she evaded pursuers for so long." the Lotus warns me.

Hearing shouts in the distance and gunfire, I see Wyvern biting a woman that has the same jumpsuit like the guards in the Relay. Guessing that's Maroo, I shoot her once in the head to disorient her, then hold down the trigger on her body until her shields drop, drop-kicking her and preparing the drive to capture her. "You ain't gonna get me that easy!" she shouts and becomes invisible. "You might fool my vision, but not my Kubrow. Surrender and I will make sure you leave unharmed. Do not piss me off with your little games." I say, seeing Wyvern biting something invisible, before she becomes visible again. Seeing that as a sign of surrender, I approach her with the drive and extract her into it.

"We got her Tenno. I'll interrogate her right now."

Going towards extraction without paying attention to the crewmen that are desperately shouting around and trying to pick up their weapons as I pass them.

"Alright, alright, Jeez. You people are too serious. You see, I've been hired by Tyl Regor to find the fragment. Nobody knows, not even the Grineer what those Arcane Codices say. But since I have a much too big hate for the Grineer, I sold the arcane fragment to the Corpus." Maroo's transmission comes on my HUD.

"Where is the Arcane Codex?" asks the Lotus. "Somewhere in a Corpus Vault. That's all I'm telling." says Maroo smugly.

"You do realise you're now probably the most hunted criminal by the Grineer, right? They'll find you and they'll have no mercy. We can provide you cover IF you reveal the location of the last arcane fragment." I negotiate with her through the comms. "You got a good point, tinman. I agree, but first I need the confirmation from your boss." she continues. "I agree. Impressive, Tenno. Head to extraction." concludes the Lotus.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Alright, Ordis. Did you receive the coordinates? We'll have to find 3 Arcane Codices so I'd like to get these out of the way quickly, you know."

"I did indeed, Operator. The first Arcane Codices are on Venus, prepare for Corpus."

 _Unda, Venus_

"Here are 3 of the Codices that the Corpus own, tin guy. Try not to mess up the mission, will ya? Each Data Vault comes with a wide array of security systems including cameras and trip lasers, and tripping the alarms will cause the Vault to trigger a 30-second data destruction sequence in which the data will be destroyed."

"Easy." as I disappear in a flash, navigating the corridors like I'm made of air, passing lightly and unseen.

First vault seems to have some kind of moving lasers in a corridor, with a camera overlooking the way in front of me, right above me. Throwing a Kunai up into the cameras, I wait for the lasers a second to move, then run in the corridor, taking a quick left to hide in between 2 pillars, then as the lasers pass, I continue on my way towards the Vault, quickly hacking into it and being on my way to the second, then the third, and in less than 7 minutes I got every single Vault down and got to extraction. "Wow… that's, uh… I seem to have underestimated you a little, tin bot." Maroo says sounding shocked. "The other Codices are in Grineer Vaults but I guess that won't be a problem for you, huh?"

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Wow you're really speedrunning through these, huh, Operator?" asks Ordis. "Yeah. I want to train myself to be faster and faster at Spy missions since they're the most boring and slow. Too repetitive, you know? And our enemies are too dumb to upgrade their security." I respond. "Either way, I have the location for the next Codices. Commencing space travel." Ordis continues.

 _Pantheon, Mercury_

"Another mission with the data vaults. I won't brief you here since you seem to already know pretty well what you're doing. Good luck." says Maroo before the transmission ends.

Having already done countless Spy missions, I should go through this one like a knife through butter… well, for the most part.

 _3 minutes later, second Data Vault_

"That's a new one." I whisper to myself, looking inside the vault and seeing a Grineer Bombard inside the Data Vault from the vents. _Doesn't seem like I should mess around with him too much since that looks like a Rocket launcher. Who knows what that can do inside the vault?_ I ponder for a minute before jumping down from the vents.

Unfortunately, I didn't see the incoming Sensor Regulator, which is basically a moving camera, or so I've learned from the first vault. As soon as it spots me, I shut it down by freezing its systems, but I was still heard by the bombard. Bullet-jumping towards him, I pierce through his armor with my Skana mid-flight, then force him to fall on his back with the impact. I quickly shove the Skana through his head, but he gets to press the trigger which shoots a rocket right into my chest, knocking me down. Feeling the burn from the Fomorian laser combined with this, I fall on my knees clutching my chest. Fortunately, the Vault is sound-proofed so nobody heard the explosion. I slowly move towards the Panel after I feel better and complete the hack.

"Tenno, are you alright? You can leave before you get damaged further, we got both of the Codices." the Lotus says concerned.

"I ain't gonna say I'm fine when I'm not, but I won't retreat from something easy like this unless all that's left of me is a red spot."

"I understand. Be careful though, you won't help anyone by getting hurt too much."

 _Alright. Third vault._ I go from vent to vent, gliding undetected until I reach the vault and secure its spoils. _Huh. What's this?_ I think while looking at what looks like a blueprint for an assault rifle. "Boltor" it says on the top. "Efficient assault rifle that sends high-powered bolts at the enemy, pinning them to the walls or otherwise destroying them from inside." It continues. _Sounds good, pretty sure I have all the stuff it needs in the Liset. They most likely stole this from us anyways since it is of Tenno design._

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Hey, Ordis. Craft the blueprint I just put in the foundry for me will ya? Also, travel towards the last Arcane Codex. Might aswell get the last ones."

"Of course, Operator."

 _Roche, Phobos_

As always, the Lotus begins informing me: "The last fragments are here, Tenno, and it looks like we aren't the first ones to visit. I'm seeing a lot of Grineer troops on the ship fighting the Corpus. Get to the Vaults before the Grineer do."

The ship has fire in every corner I can see. The Grineer basically turned it into a warzone. _As if one of them wasn't enough. Now I gotta fight both_.

Nothing in the first rooms except corpses littering the floor. A few rooms after, I could see about 12 Grineer pushing the Corpus back. I thought they would rather fight each other than me… seems logical, right? Oh boy, was I wrong. First step into the room, I get shot by a MOA, making the Grineer start shooting me too. "Seriously?" I shout towards them.

Activating Vex Armor, I feel the damage of their bullets reduce to nearly nothing, and my anger levels increasing. "You fucked up now, boys." I say, menacingly walking towards them, headshotting the occasional Butcher trying to get close or MOA, until I cornered the Grineer troops and the Corpus ones. In one swipe, I take off 4 heads from both of the factions' troops, then kill 3 more with a low sword sweep. Activating Spectral Scream, I watch the remaining units cower in fear as I freeze them one by one, then break them in pieces.

The Lotus suddenly reminds me: "Tenno, do not forget about the Vaults.", making me drop one of the Troopers I was holding up by their necks, and running at full speed towards the Vaults.

Fortunately, the Vaults were still untouched. Unfortunately, they were on higher alert with the attack by the Grineer, making it harder for me.

 _After the last Data is extracted safely_

"Hello again, tin can. Now that you got all the Arcane Codices, you need to get them to the Arcane Machine where I found the one I got, somewhere in the Derelict. I'll send you the coordinates since I don't remember the details right now."

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Ordis, what's an Orokin Derelict?

"Well, it's an Orokin Tower that basically got taken over by the Infestation and aged like that without any maintenance. It's a shame really, such amazing structure gone to waste." he expresses sadly. "Alright, thanks for the info. I put the new coordinates Maroo gave me, let's finish this and find out what kind of arcane knowledge these fragments hold. Who knows what kind of power they yield."

 _Alator, Mars_

"Last step in this mission, Tenno. This Orokin base has been overrun with Infested but they're not the reason we came here. Find the portal and step into the Orokin Derelict."

Leaping from wall to wall or just sprinting and dodging the infested, I start to think of some stuff on the way, such as the "Sentients" I remember from my dream, or trying to remember anything else from the Old War. /i/Why can't I remember?/i/

Once I spot the portal, I jump straight through it and await further instruction.

"Alright, I marked the machine's location from memory on your map. Let's see what kind of high-valued treasure it yields!" Maroo says, unable to contain her want for treasure and money.

Looking around for a second, I see overgrown trees and plants everywhere, breaking through the structure and giving the place an even more ancient feel, before I remember my task and go towards the machine.

Once I see the machine, I enter a gigantic room that seems for the most part unaffected by the infestation, with said machine in the middle of it. Approaching it cautiously, I go in front of it and start putting in the Arcane fragments.

The machine, suddenly coming to life, starts broadcasting some kind of message, with all of us listening closely to it.

" _All-All is silent- Hushed-hushed and empty is-is-is the womb of the sky."_

 _The hell?_ "Wha- what's this? Where's the treasure? God damn it." says Maroo, saddened. "I'm sorry, Maroo. I'm sure you'll find your treasure at some point." tries Ordis to cheer her up. "Thanks, Ordo, but I'm already used to low payouts as a freelancer."

Ignoring the two's chat, I try to use my limited memory to decipher what the machine meant. Hearing the cipher awoke something in me… I'm feeling strange, like something is gnawing at me, trying to get out as I get interrupted by the Lotus. "Nothing here, Tenno. Go back to your ship. Good work." she says kind of forcefully, making me suspicious, but complying nonetheless.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Operator, Maroo left you a message. Check communications."

 _Tenno,_

 _Thank you for your help and for the most part, kindness. I know I didn't really deserve it but I appreciate it anyways. Idon't know what the cipher means, but your Lotus seems to be hiding something. Don't take my word for it, it's just a thief's instinct, ya know? Now with the Grineer threat gone, I can go on my way. If you need help with anything I can do, come to my Bazaar on Earth._

 _-Maroo_

"Alright, Ordis. Let's go to the Larunda Relay. I have to check the Tenno there and ask Vauban if he knows anything about this."

 _Larunda Relay, Space_

Getting out of the warframe slot, I start walking towards the middle of the Relay again, with guards moving slowly away from me when I get close to them, making me chuckle.

Once I get into the middle, everyone looks at me, with some new faces or old, at first the new ones looking worried and the old ones looking at my burn scar, but I dismiss it with a wave, they then bow or salute as I pass by them. "No need for formalities, my friends. We are all brothers and sisters here, are we not?" I casually dismiss their salutes with one of mine.

Getting to Vauban, I start talking to him about the Archwings. "Vauban, how many of your Tenno have Archwings?" I ask him.

"Well, only the occasional veterans that come through. Keep in mind, most of the Tenno here are freshly awakened. We kept sending search parties for Archwing blueprints but we found none." he responds.

"Well here's one for Odonata, then. It's a balanced Archwing made for offensive and defensive stances. Just copy the blueprint and send it to all the Tenno here. Also, I wanted to talk to you about something much more… important. Two things, actually."

"I understand and thank you very much, you don't know how much help those will provide. Come into the mission control room, it is rarely used either way. By the way, how did you get your burn? Looks painful."

Once we get inside, I start with the first question: "Do not panic, but the Grineer started the Balor Fomorian line. That's where I got the scar, one of their lasers hit me. I came here to warn you about it and arm the Tenno with Archwings in case one of the Fomorians try to attack the Relay, and I'm 99% sure they will at some point."

"God damn it. One of the Relays on Earth got destroyed a long time ago by a Balor Fomorian. Those things are nigh indestructible and shake things up too easily. Also, you survived a Fomorian laser? I'm seriously starting to believe you're immortal." he chuckles.

"We'll be prepared if one tried to attack this Relay. Now onto the second question: After I completed a mission the Lotus sent me on, I turned on this machine with an Arcane Codex in the Orokin Derelict, and all it did was say: "All is silent- Hushed and empty is the womb of the sky." Do you have any ideas what it means?"

"Unfortunately, I don't. It obviously has to do something with the Orokin since the machine was in an Orokin Derelict after all. Try asking Simaris, he's a cephalon that stores information about every race on the upper floor, room to the right."

"Thanks, Vauban. I'll go and check now." I conclude the conversation and go walk towards this cephalon Simaris.

Taking the elevator up to the second floor, I head right and enter inside the room.

"I knew you would come here soon, Legend. It is an honour to meet you." says the giant yellow holographic eye that I'm assuming is Simaris.

"Why are you calling me Legend?" I ask him curiously.

"Your warframe is of legendary quality, it has 4 different warframe parts from ones such as Volt, Saryn, Ember and Frost and went through years of testing during the Old War. Your warframe is the first Alpha Warframe created. While Excalibur may have been the first, that means it hasn't gone through the testing one like yours went through. One of its proportions haven't been found yet, except one. You. Tenno, I already know you seek my help with something, and I will give it to you with one condition."

After taking all the information in, I respond "I'm listening."

"You see, my best and most efficient huntress, an Omega Warframe, has recently lost contact with me. I need the help of someone of your caliber to go where the last signal from her was received. I can't imagine what would happen if one of the factions captured her and took control of her, Tenno. Rescue her and I'll help you with anything you need." Simaris continued.

 _How dare those inferior creatures even think about capturing one of my brethren. For the sake of their race, they better not do anything_./"Send me the coordinates."

 _Orbiter, Space_

Unequipping my weapons, I go to the foundry and finish some of the new ones I crafted, such as:

Primary: Boltor - Secondary: Aklex - Melee: Galatine

"Ordis, start the ship. I'm going on a rescue mission."

 **Ey, gonna stop the chapter here so I can properly have the next mission on another chapter. Don't worry, the next one will come right after this one. Remember to review and see ya in the next one.**


	5. Chapter 4: The Huntress and The Dragon

**Continuing from where we left off, this is where I'll present our Tenno's little love interest. This will be way more of a sappy/cheesy chapter (first time writing romance stuff, bear with me, will ya?), enjoy and remember:**

 **I don't own Warframe, credit to Digital Extremes for it (just making sure).**

 **Italics is for places/thoughts or messages.**

 _Themisto, Jupiter_

"Watch out, Tenno. Themisto is Alad V's base of operations. He is known for taking Warframes and experimenting on them, or selling their parts to the highest bidders. Do not underestimate him though, his loyal Corpus Proxy, the Zanuka, is made from different Warframe parts. Good luck, Tenno."

Crashing through the vents, I start towards the cells of the base as fast as I can, leaving behind me only blood as a marker. If what the Lotus said is true, I might not have a lot of time.

"Ooh, what's this? A new project for me to work on? Trying to rescue one of your friends or assassinate me like the past Tenno tried? Here's one of them." Alad V's face appears on my HUD, talking with me using my comms. The camera pans, revealing a handcuffed warframe, having what looks like laser cuffs on the feet, hands and neck, being stuck to a post. I identify the warframe as a Mag, but to my shock and horror, the lasers cut the warframe where they were placed, watching it be then thrown in a cart, part by part and sent somewhere probably to be sold. "This could be you, Tenno. So please, do come forward and show yourself. I just caught another one that tried the same thing." he continues, as he shows a stunningly beautiful hooded warframe, with slim body and the looks of a huntress, also having 2 bunny-like ears falling back through her hood. _An Ivara, very rare warframe, nearly as rare as me…_ I identify. _This must be the one Simaris asked me to rescue… damn she's a thing of beauty.._ I say a little marvelled by her aspect until the camera goes back to Alad V. "Pretty nice one, eh? I heard they're rare, too. I might keep this one to myself." he says with a sick laugh.

"Talk while you can, once I get to you, you will beg to die, just like all the other Generals and Commanders." I say, seeing his face turn to fear and surprise for a moment, surprising a little even myself when I hear what sounds like a second voice, talking with me, this one sounding… arcane.

Now fuelled with fury, I sprint down the halls until I reach the marked location, the marker being Alad V himself. Not waiting for the door to open, I activate Vex Armor and Elemental Ward, then punch the closed door right in the middle, seeing it snap out of its bolts from the pressure, sending it forward and making it gain a little air time.

In front of me, I see a what seems to be like the front of the base, with a giant glass to see in front and a pretty clear terrain around. But most importantly, I see the Ivara in the same position as the Mag, except the laser cutters aren't yet powered, with Alad V looking her up and down, probably trying to evaluate her price. "Here I am you little shit. Send your troops so I can finish this faster!" I shout towards him, making him wince and turn towards me, with the Ivara's head slowly moving towards me, looking hopeful.

"Oh my. In all my years I haven't seen a warframe like yours. I've heard tales of a legendary draconic warframe but never thought one would come knocking on my door! Zanuka, we must capture this one, it must be worth a fortune, dead or alive!" he shouts like a maniac at his robot.

(Recommended battle music: Battle Royale - Apashe ft. Panther)

Ignoring the bullets and missiles firing towards me by the Zanuka, I slowly approach Alad V, with the damage I'm receiving only helping me grow my armor and making the Fury effect from Vex Armor flare off. As soon as I punch him, he tries to deflect my punch using his metal wrist guards, breaking the wrist guards and breaking his arm. Shrieking in pain, he activates some kind of remote, putting him in a void bubble impervious to damage.

Unable to damage Alad, I turn towards his robot to fight with it. Dodging a few rockets, I start towards it. I freeze one of its arms with Spectral Scream, then ripping it off and plunging it into its head, seeing the robot spin around for a moment before falling down to the ground, trying to get its own arm out. Seeing it on the ground, I start repeatedly punching it using swift blows, leaving major dents with every single strike until what used to be a marvel of technology is now a mess of circuits and metal, then exploding, damaging me a little with the blast, but further scaling Scorn and Fury.

Turning towards Alad, I see him kneeling in front of me, begging to spare him and saying that he will give me all the money I could possibly want. I knock him out for a few minutes with a weak punch to the neck, then go to the girl and help her get rid of the cuffs before the lasers activate.

Ripping off the cuffs, she falls into my arms and we stare for a moment at each other. _No no no no no. No. I can't deal with such a big distraction while I… God damn it why can't I stop staring?!_ I shout in my mind. As we hear a cough behind, we both look in the sound's direction before I put her down gently and turn back to Alad V, coughing his lungs out. Remembering what he was doing and did, all my Fury comes back, so I grab him by the neck, lift him up and put him in the slot where he was cutting warframes, then cuff him and turn on the lasers, watching them cut him in multiple parts while screaming, then turn back and pick Ivara up again.

"Good work, Tenno. No one will dare sell warframes for profit or experiment on them like Alad V did after what you've done to him. Words of this will reach very high, though, so watch out. The factions might take an interest in you." warns the Lotus. "Get your fellow Tenno to extraction."

As I carry her towards extraction, she looks towards the extraction marker, guessing she also sees it on her HUD, then towards the trail of blood and fire left everywhere by me on my way here. Deciding to break the silence, I start with a soothing tone "Are you okay? Did they do anything to you?"

Looking up towards me, she says in a soft voice "No.. They didn't get the chance. Thank you." before looking down. "I can't believe I let myself get captured like that, I've never had a problem with any of their troops until that Zanuka thing cornered me while I was out of energy.." she continues. "Hey, don't beat yourself up over that, just seeing you I already know you're powerful. You were just unfortunate, we all have bad moments, y'know." I say calmly. _I just can't help myself, she is a Goddamn beacon of calmness. "_ Yeah… I guess…" she says as she shuffles a bit in my arms, turning her body towards me. "Thank you for the kind words. It's kind of hard to find someone as caring in an universe like we live in, with war everywhere." Then, to my surprise, she puts her hands around me and hugs me for a second, before turning back and looking forward.

"N-no p-problem." I say stuttering a little. _The fuck am I doing?!_

The rest of the way was a silent and calm stroll towards extraction, with us enjoying the company of each other.

 _Larunda Relay, Space_

Stepping on the Relay's deck, I ask her if she can stand, to which she shakes her head, before I pick her up. When she was again in my arms. Once I start going a bit forward, I feel her put a finger on my burn mark from the Fomorian fight and trace around it smoothly. _Oh for… she is destroying my mind little by little. I gotta get her to Simaris before I start tripping or doing some dumb stuff._

 _Ivara's PoV_

 _I feel a bit guilty for lying to him about not being able to stand, but I'll be damned if I don't like being carried. I just hope whatever this is won't distract me from my missions..._

As he carries me forward, I can't help but admire the well-defined armor he is wearing, and look at his burn mark on his torso. Putting a finger on it I start feeling around his scar and ask him "How did you manage to get this? Does it hurt?" to which he responds calmly "a fight with a Balor Fomorian. Those lasers hit like a truck. And no, not anymore", so I continue checking it.

Going through the first doors, I see a bunch of Tenno grouped up in the middle of the relay, talking to each other, before they all turn and look at him, then at me, with some guys whisper-cheering and giving him thumbs up making me feel embarrassed again. As he moves forward undeterred, they all cut a path for him to move and salute him like he is their leader. _Could he actually be their leader?_ I think as we reach the door to Simaris, realizing that he must have been so worried about me with the whole captured thing.

 _Chroma's PoV_

 _God damn it that was embarrassing. Good thing I know how to suppress my emotions._

Reaching Simaris, I see Ivara shift a little in my arms before the doors open.

 _Normal PoV_

As Simaris sees Ivara, the eye instantly zooms in to the pair and starts asking them questions. "Oh, Ivara, what happened? What did they do to you? Did you get captured? I knew I shouldn't have sent you on such a dangerous mission.

"Basically, Alad V captured me and wanted to sell my parts to the highest bidder… or at least I hope that's what he wanted." says Ivara as she shivers, then continues "And it wasn't your fault, Simaris. I just got caught in a bad place by his Zanuka Project."

"Oh thank you, Chroma, for bringing back my Huntress. You don't know how much she means to me. I could never replace her with anyone." says Simaris thankful towards Chroma.

"My pleasure." responds the Tenno, looking down at Ivara, before placing her gently on the ground.

"Don't forget about the Cipher I sent you, Simaris. I'll need it deciphered soon. Who knows what kind of power it could lead to." says Chroma, instantly becoming serious at the mention of the Cipher.

"Of course, of course. I'll see you later, Tenno." responds Simaris.

As Chroma looks towards the Huntress, she gives him a little wave while looking a little down and he offers her one back, then leaves through the door.

 _Ivara's PoV_

 _Sigh… Who knows when I'll get the chance to meet him again…_ I think while looking at the ground.

"My, my. I didn't think Tenno can fall in love." says Simaris cheekily.

"I-I don't-" I begin stuttering, before Simaris interrupts me "Cut the trivialities, you know you can't hide stuff from a cephalon that easily, Huntress."

"Who is he?" I ask.

"Chroma, an Alpha Warframe and the new leader of this Relay. As I have told you before, there are 3 types of warframes:

The **Beta** Warframes: they are one of the first concieved warframes and are the " **Originals** ".

The **Omega** Warframes: these ones, like yours, have gone through multiple tests before being produced, and have mixed powers or abilities based on the ones deemed as most useful from other warframes.

The **Alpha** Warframes: the pinnacle of Orokin engineering, they are made from multiple "pieces" of other warframes, have their abilities and attributes integrated, and a 5th power." explains Simaris.

"What is the 5th power?" I ask curiously, while sitting with my head prepped on my hands.

"That is unknown for now, I guess your little interest will be the first one to show the galaxy an Alpha's power. For now, go rest. You went through enough today."

As I lift myself up from the ground, I see Simaris staring me at me, before I realise I'm standing fully on my feet with no problems at all. Before he can say anything, I shut him up by pointing at him trying to look angry, but failing as I'm too embarrassed. He chuckles and dismisses the conversation.

 _Chroma's PoV_

 _I wonder if I'll see her again soon… I should get some missions from Simaris just to get an excuse to see her more often, what bad can that do?_ I contemplate before I see Vauban walking towards me.

"How's it going, boss?" he asks as he slaps me on the shoulder. "Word around town is that our leader got himself a pretty lady. Who is it?" says vauban cheekily.

I facepalm before answering with the palm on my face "First, I'm not your boss. Second, she isn't my lady. Third, Ivara. Simaris tasked me with rescuing her from Alad V, she was pretty hurt so I carried her here. Also, Alad V is down."

"Wait, seriously? Damn, man, you're cleaning the whole galaxy bit by bit."

"Well, someone has to." I say jokingly as I punch him on the shoulder, earning a chuckle from him before we go our own ways, with me feeling much happier than these past 3 days.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Hey, Ordis." I start, "Has the Lotus given us any missions?"

"Not any that I know of, no, Operator."

"Then let's make our own while Simaris researches on the Cipher. Where can Orokin Catalysts be found?"

"I heard some of them being found on places like the Orokin Derelict, but there are few people that dare go in such a nasty place. There are some kind of vaults that can be found there, left by the Orokin." says Ordis.

"Then let's go to the one we know of, eh? I haven't even had time to check it out." I decide, weirdly compelled to go to the exact Derelict.

 _Alator, Mars_

"Exterminate every piece of infestation on this Derelict so it can be restored, Tenno. Good luck." says the Lotus.

 _Time to go to work._ Getting my Boltor out, I pin the first few Infested to the walls with minimal effort, then sweep the others easily, using the Galatine's giant size. Continuing forward, I shoot down the first few Infested Chargers with my Aklex then impale an Ancient with my sword, before killing the remaining Leapers using the Boltor. _Damn, these are some good weapons._

Continuing the same process for the next rooms, I go forward before I stop, hearing a strange… divine sound. Slowly walking towards it, I see what looks like the door to a Vault, with a claw slot in the middle. My HUD says "Dragon Key required." once I get closer. Ignoring my HUD, I put my hand in the Dragon Key slot and the door starts glowing, before sliding open and allowing me in. The whispers start getting louder and louder, even though the Vault is empty. I fall to my knees clutching me head, trying to focus my mind onto something, something to keep me from falling to the control of whoever is doing this. "Tenno, are you alright? Tenno? Ten-" suddenly, my communications shut down and I fall to the ground, blacking out.

 _(Meanwhile) Ivara's PoV_

"Huntress, have you scanned the Grineer complex as I requested?" asks Simaris.

"Yeah. I have yet to check what the scans reveal. Let's have a look." I say and then turn on my holographic transmitter using my HUD. The line stays static for a moment before Grineer shouting and gunfire is heard on the background. As I'm about to shut it down, we hear a whisper: " _HERE WE SHALL SEARCH AND FIND. THE EYES OF DAY DRINKING THE NIGHT."_

"Wait, this looks like the continuation to what Chroma brought to me. I'll contact the Lo-" Simaris begins as the Lotus interrupts "Simaris, I am in dire need of your help and your Huntress'."

"Oh, we were just about to speak to you. We just found the continuation to the transmission Chroma found." he says undeterred.

"Chroma went on a Derelict exterminate mission, trying to find one of the ancient Orokin Vaults. Once he found one, he fell to the ground and I started hearing the same whispers come from his communications. Whoever sent those transmissions now has him captured."

"Where was the last time you spoke to him, Lotus?"

"I'll send the coordinates to your Huntress. The last thing we want is him to get captured and controlled."

"Are you up for the task, Huntress?" Simaris asks me. "Of course." I respond confidently.

 _Alator, Mars_

Going through the portal, I reach the Derelict and start on my way towards the marked location, following the trail of impaled Infested and blood. _Damn, he really is a fighter isn't he?_ I ask myself before I shake my head, trying to get the thoughts out. _This is important. I can't have thoughts like those distracting me._

Reaching the Vault doors, I go inside to find nothing there. Starting to get a little creeped out by the calmness of such a normally populated space, I go towards the arcane machine the Lotus marked for me.

Once I get into the gigantic room, I see a figure kneeling in front of the machine. Getting closer, I see Chroma standing there, not moving at all. Once I'm withing reach, I kneel besides him and put my hand on his shoulder. In the fraction of a second, he grabs my hand, twirls me around and puts my hand behind my back, then grabs the other one too and ties down my hands to the machine. "I will not be interrupted by an inferior being such as a Tenno." he says in a strange arcane voice, with his warframe's energy burning bright.

"Chroma? What happened to you? Who is doing this? It's me, Ivara." I say hopeful, thinking it might work. As he recognizes me, he stops for a second before getting closer and taking his Galatine out, then putting it to my neck. "Please, don't do that. Don't you recognize me?" I whisper.

Realising what he is doing for a second he shouts at nothing "Leave her alone!" as he grabs the Galatine and plunges it into himself, forcing whatever is corrupting him to retreat, "Damned worm!" the arcane voice shouts again and Chroma disappears.

Quickly controlling one of my arrows from my shoulder, I make it cut down the metallic ties and then I call Simaris using the comms. "Did the tracker work?" I ask him sadly.

"Yes, good job, Huntress. I know this hurts you but we must stop him in any way we can." he responds.

"Let's get this over with, then."

 _Ose, Europa_

Breaking through the vents, I run towards the next Derelict portal and then head rapidly to the marker with the new machine. Not seeing anyone, I wait for a few moments before I see Corpus proxies starting to invade through the portal, trying to steal the arcane machine here too.

Choosing my zipline arrow, I quickly make a platform for me to stay hidden on, then use my invisibility and snipe the corpus with Navigator. Continuing like this for about 4 waves, I finally complete the 5th when I hear a beast-like roar and the Corpus retreat back to the portal.

I see Chroma appearing in front of the machine, this time with red energy, then looking around confused. He stares a little towards the portal then turns his vision right towards me, confusing me since I'm still invisible. _Please don't tell me he can see me._

He jumps towards me, but I quickly dodge and kick him on the side of his head. Grabbing an arrow, I load up my Paris and then I fire at his chest, staggering him for a second, before I see him coat himself on fire, and start towards me again. I roll to the side, preparing another arrow and then firing at his burn mark, making him roar in pain, making his energy grow even brighter. He starts breathing fire around, burning my hand and making me drop my arrow, revealing my location. He turns towards me and delivers a swift punch to the gut but I back flip before I can take anymore damage. "Huntress, use the synthesis scanner. It is the only way we can contain him." Simaris comes on the comms.

Pulling out my Synthesis Scanner, I see I need to scan 4 major points, so I throw down a Synthesis Trap and scan him while he is suspended mid-air by the trap, before he disappears into pixels, roaring. "I got him, Tenno. I'll try my best to bring him back. Thank you." said the Lotus, as I drop to the ground on my bottom, trying to catch my breath and then move to extraction.

 _Chroma's PoV, Unknown Location_

 _I can't believe all the stuff that happened._ I could see everything that whoever was controlling me was doing, until I plunged my Galatine inside me, leaving full control to the creature and forcing it to leave Ivara alone. I woke up a few minutes ago with full control over my body, then suddenly I was teleported back to my ship, as I blacked out again.

 _Orbiter, Space_

The first thing I heard were my warframe's systems restarting, then Ordis' voice and the whines and barks of Wyvern. Picking myself up from the ground with a mighty headache, I scratch Wyvern behind the ears and ask Ordis the first thing I could. "What happened?" but before he could respond, the Lotus came on and started asking me questions: "Tenno, how do you feel? What do you remember? Are you alright?" she starts with the tone of a worried mother. After explaining everything, first thing I do is head to the Relay.

 _Larunda Relay, Space_

Running through the halls, I slow down a little to salute the other Tenno, before running again towards Simaris' Sanctuary. Once I get there, I spot Simaris looking over the Codex, but most importantly, I spot Ivara looking over the target list for the Sanctuary, softly swiping through the targets.

Sneaking up behind her, I grab her shoulder before turning her around as I hear her give a little squeal, then stare a little at me and hug me. "How do you feel?" we both ask at the same time and then chuckle. "Ladies first." I say.

 _Normal PoV_

 _I can't believe it's him! I was afraid he couldn't be helped anymore when the Lotus stopped contacting us._ the Huntress says in her mind. "I'm not the one who was possessed, got stabbed and then got himself beaten by a girl, big guy." Ivara says cheekily.

"Hey, you're lucky I stabbed myself there, who knows what that thing would've done to you." Chroma says back jokingly, then continues, suddenly serious "Even like that, I couldn't stop you from getting hurt…" as he grabs her hand and inspects it, holding it.

"I-It's fine. Don't worry about it. After all, I did shoot you a few times too." she says as she rubs the back of her head guiltily with her other hand. "This will clear in a few days, trust me." Ivara continues as she places her other hand on top of Chroma to emphasize on her burn, but they both get lost into each other's "eyes", while he moves his other hand to her face, softly moving her hood a bit out of it, then resting his hand on her cheek.

"You know, the Sanctuary isn't made for staring, Tenno. Go get a room or something in the Relay." Simaris says, annoyed at the 2 Tenno standing in the middle of the Sanctuary, not moving, further embarrassing the two.

"Uh, yeah, right. Simaris, do you happen to have a blueprint for an Orokin Catalyst?" asks Chroma, while Ivara is trying to cover her face with her ears from embarrassment.

"I do, Legend. But I'll need you to work for it now. Use the synthesis scanner to scan these specimens I marked, and the blueprint will be yours. Huntress, why don't you aid the Legend, like that it will go much faster." Simaris responds, then approaches Ivara and whispers something while she still looks embarrassed. " _Like that you two will spend some quality time together._ whispers Simaris, making her completely cover her face with her hood, ears and hands. "Okay." she responds lowly.

Seeing as she is still covering her face once they get out of the Sanctuary, Chroma moves in front of her and says while moving her hands away "Come on, why would you cover such a pretty thing?" then grabs her hand and walks with her towards the dock, earning a few whistles on the way there and a snicker from Vauban.

 _Orbiter, Space, Chroma's PoV_

"Alright. Ivara, you ready to rock 'n' roll? We have to scan 6 Grineer Arid Lancers, so I'd say we go on Mars and start there. What do ya say?" I say using the comms towards Ivara and her Liset.

"Sounds good to me!" I hear her say excitedly, making me chuckle. "This is the first mission I'm doing with somebody else." she continues

"Same here."

 _Syrtis, Mars_

"Exterminate mission, Tenno. You know what to do." Lotus starts.

"Who is this little cutie?" asks my partner as she starts petting Wyvern, earning a happy bark from him. "Wyvern, my Kubrow. Funny you call him little, considering he is as tall as you." I say cockily, earning a glare from her.

"Let's get this party started, shall we?" I continue as we parkour towards the marker, with Ivara going invisible and me activating Vex Armor. The first Grineer to cross our paths gets an arrow through his head and a few bolts in his torso. Seeing a bunch more piled up, I charge a Galatine hit and sweep under, cutting them in half. As a Napalm tries to sneak up on me, Ivara puts an arrow through his brain, making him drop to the ground. "Cheers." I shout and run towards more, shooting down a few with amazing marksmanship, then meleeing others while Ivara takes care of her own batch of Grineer, then sniping a Grineer Regulator.

Slowly but surely, we were taking down everyone in the base with swift kills and quick movements.

Spotting a few Arid Lancers, she traps one and Wyvern grounds the other, then scan them, taking down a third of our quota.

Moving forward towards the other 4, we find them all grouped up, so she throw a trap right in the middle of them and then uses her zipline arrow to tie them together, allowing us to scan them easily, completing our mission.

Since the base was empty now, we decided to take our time walking back to the Liset. "Hey, how did you and Simaris meet?" I ask her while walking beside her with Wyvern on my side.

"After I woke up from my cryopod, I came to the Saturn Relay, where people were looking at me strangely as if I'm an alien. Simaris was the only one that didn't worry about it and so I accepted to work for him, becoming like a daughter to the ancient cephalon, explaining to me a lot of stuff and why I am different, and before you ask, Simaris can be on multiple Relays by projecting a hologram." explains Ivara while petting Wyvern, earning a purring-like sound from the beast.

 _Larunda Relay, Space_

Going through the mass of Tenno, we head to Simaris and I claim my reward for the completion of synthesis.

"Your mission took a bit long, didn't it, Tenno? Something happen?" asks Simaris with a fake innocent voice.

"Uh, no, no, don't worry Simaris. Thank you again for the Catalyst, but for now I must make some preparations for the Relay in case of a Fomorian attack." I say and then look towards Ivara, bowing a little as a form of "goodbye", earning a giggle and a small wave from her and an exasperated sigh from Simaris.

As I walk back, I try to find Vauban to talk about the potential threats. Finding him talking to a warframe I identify as a Wukong, I approach slowly, hearing them talk about an Orokin Reactor.

"Hey there, boss. This is Wukong, the leader of the Saturn Relay, Kronia; Wukong, this is Chroma, the leader of our Relay." Vauban introduces.

"An honour to meet you." bows the warframe, "The honour is mine." I respond and bow too.

"We were just talking about the new Fomorians discovered to be made." he Vauban responds.

"Are the Archwings prepared in case of an attack?"

"Yessir, we already tested them. They won't know what hit em. I gave Wukong here the blueprints for the Archwing too, by the way. I hope you don't mind."

"Why would I? More Tenno with Archwings mean less Fomorians that can destroy our homes." I respond, then continue "Now if you two will excuse me, I'll go take care of some other stuff."

 _Orbiter, Space_

"You're feeling pretty good today, hmm, Operator? Something to do with your little friend?" Ordis asks in an impudent manner.

"Can't deny that. Ever since I met her everything is more beautiful. But that's not a fully good thing. I have to focus my attention fully on restoring the Galaxy, as much as I'd love to stay with her for days and days, can't have my authority and my no mercy policy disappear just because she makes me feel like a lovesick fool. And don't try to use this against me, alright? I saw you talking with her cephalon." I say back cheekily.

"What? No! I wouldn't do such a thing." quickly responds Ordis, before chickening out "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll have to arrange your mods and make sure they're in top condition."

 **Aaaand end. Damn that was a cheesy as hell chapter, but you gotta get that romance in, yo (OTP, OTP). It just makes stories go smoother in my opinion, and you gotta show somehow that a character isn't a heartless killing machine (for the most part). About that, from now on there will be some stuff like this, obviously not really as much but will still be there. And yes, Ivara has the Youkai helmet (much better than all the others IMO) other stuff will be revealed in due time, such as prime stuff. I made them easier to get and less grindy for the sake of the story.**

 **See ya in the next one.**


	6. Chapter 5: Myths & Legends

**Well goddamn. Now I know why some authors just seem to abandon their stories. I don't have much of an excuse except the fact that I didn't expect the story to be that hard to go part-original, part-canon and try to also make it exciting/long, so I kind of blocked and decided to stop until I get my ideas in order. I owe ya'll an apology.**

 **So, in case you haven't completed Natah or The Second Dream, I don't really recommend the following chapters, since this one will focus heavily on said quests. I wanted to get these 2 out of the way so I can reveal information and move the story much easier. Also, I know Chroma might be pretty OP for now, since he's supposed to be Legendary, it wouldn't make sense for some butchers or metal pets to give him trouble, although there will be some serious fights in the future.**

 **Anywho, I don't own Warframe, Digital Extremes does, Italics is for places/timeskips/thoughts or messages. Enjoy!**

" _We are here… We will finish what we began… Starting with you… No one will escape our wr-_ " "Operator? Operator. We received a message from the Lotus." says Ordis, "waking" me up

 _I keep having these weird dreams.. Premonitions… Whatever the hell they are. Who is coming? What am I missing here?_ I ponder before I open up my HUD and check my inbox.

 _Tenno, I require your help._

 _-Lotus_ with some coordinates attached.

"Ordis, fire up the ship. We're going on a mission." I say before taking my place in front of the navigations console

 _Gaia, Earth_

"Tenno, one of our operatives has found a particularly strange being on the battlefield today. I need your help scanning the new ones spotted on this Grineer base. I am guessing they are of Corpus design, so we need to be careful." briefs the Lotus.

Equipping my scanner, I run towards the marked locations, ignoring the Grineer trying to shoot me since at this point their bullets feel like pebbles. First marker on the map, I see 2 light-blue drone looking beings scanning what looks like an Old War wreckage. "Why would the Corpus be interested into the Old War all of the sudden?" asks the Lotus.

"Beats me, should I scan the drones too?" I ask her. "Yes, they might reveal more information." responds the guide.

Proceeding to scan the 2 drones, I await for the Lotus to inform me of the next step and what they are. "They're… they're Oculysts… I thought… Tenno, stay safe." she says with a horrified and shocked tone, before cutting the transmission altogether.

"Did the Lotus just.. abandon us, Operator? I'll prepare the ship, head to extraction." Ordis' voice pops up in the comms.

"I have a bad feeling about this, Ordis. A very, very bad feeling. Go straight to the Relay once we get back." I say, feeling a strange feeling in my stomach, like when a disaster is waiting to happen.

 _Larunda Relay, Space_

Running in the halls, I go to the middle of the Relay where I see Vauban trying to calm everyone down. "Everyone, please, we all need to be calm and find a reason for this." but everyone kept talking over each other.

Activating Spectral Scream, I release it into the air, immediately shutting up everyone in the room. "People, this is not a time to argue. We all need to be on the same page if we want to make sense of this." Moving forward, I go besides Vauban, with Ivara quickly spotting me then running up to my side, and start talking towards the mass of Tenno. "While undertaking a mission for the Lotus, I found 2 drones of Corpus-like design, or so we thought at the beginning. Once the Lotus recognized them as Oculysts, she told us to stay safe and shut down the transmissions everywhere. All we know as of now is that we need to organize ourselves and figure out what these Oculysts are. Anyone has any idea of their origins?" Looking around, I see one raised hand from the Conclave master, Teshin. "You know about them, Teshin?" I ask him a little surprised.

"Yes, Champion. It is a menace long-thought dead. But first, I'll need to extract some information from a Grineer base to back up my claims. Are you up for the task?" to which I give a nod, and Ivara whispers me a "Good luck".

 _Cassini, Saturn_

"Dragon, your Lotus isn't who you think she is, I'll need your help unravelling her secret. Use this hard drive on the 3 marked consoles in this Grineer Galleon. Only then will we know of her true intentions." Teshin starts once I reach the Galleon.

Going through the halls of Grineer, in one hand the hard drive and in the other a Lex. One console after the other, I hack into each of them and then defend them for about a minute or two before heading towards extraction with the hard drive in my hand.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Here, Champion. Unlike your Lotus, I'll share with you what we have found:"

 _INTERCEPTED MESSAGE:_

 _Sgt. Scur-_

 _You want to know why they are here? Cause I found it! The tomb! They should all be dead... trapped inside - but these ones are not, why? Be brave, Scur, for your brothers, sick and twisted in the tubes! New ideas are within our reach that could cure us all. Send the Draga to reinforce the location we discussed. Scur, if you saw too many words I'm sorry, I forgot who I was writing to, so assuming you just read the big letters..._

 _SEND DRAGA-KILL TENNO-HELP BROTHERS_

 _-Tyl Regor_

"Looks like the Grineer have found something. Interesting, is it not? We must eliminate this Sergeant before he can mobilise the Draga." says Teshin.

 _Sycorax, Uranus_

"The marker is your target, Dragon. Aim to kill."

Sprinting towards my new objective, I make sure nobody notices me so the assassination goes smoothly. Quickly reaching the Sergeant, I wait for him to move somewhere more remote, but see that he won't go anywhere without his guard, so I activate my armors, then drop kick him, land in the middle of the 2 guards, headshot both with the Aklex and then put the Boltor's muzzle to the Sergeant's temple, before unleashing a barrage of deadly bolts. "I like your style, Tenno. You should visit the Conclave at some point." praises Teshin.

"I'm not really into the fighting other Tenno stuff, already did it when I first ca-" I try to respond before the Lotus comes back on and cuts me off: "Tenno, Teshin is leading you on a path to danger. Do not continue."

"Why, scared of what we might find, Lotus?" says Teshin sarcastically.

"The sentient." which sent my mind in overdrive for a second. _Sentient? Why do I feel like I'm so tied to those things? What are they? What does my dream have to do with them?_ I think before Teshin asks:

"You know this one, don't you?" which makes me ask the same thing in my mind.

"Tenno, you must stop Tyl Regor from opening the Tomb at all costs." says the Lotus before cutting the transmission again.

 _Ariel, Uranus_

"Trigger the alarms when ready, Dragon. We cannot allow Tyl Regor to undo centuries of war." says Teshin.

Quickly hacking into the console, I prepare for the waves on incoming Grineer.

"Ooh, a Tenno? Come to try and stop me? No, I'm afraid I can't do that. I will open this Tomb and claim what is inside for myself. If you try to interrupt, I'll have to beat you into commission, and I don't really feel like doing that right now." Tyl Regor starts with a calm, un-Grineer voice in my comms.

"Save the smart talk for when I come for you, Regor. Do not open up that tomb. You do not know of the danger you're releasing upon the galaxy." I respond while fighting his troops.

"Oh? You're the Tenno that killed General Vor? You'll be an interesting one to dissect. I always learn the most from alive ones." he says in a bit of shock at the beginning then continuing with the same calm voice.

"Regor, do not open the Tomb. Do not undo what the Orokin did in all their years of war." says Teshin.

"Do I look like I care about the Orokin and their war, pseudo-Tenno? Those fools got what was coming for them, we are much more advanced and prepared."

"Teshin is right, Tyl. The Sentients won't spare anyone in the system and if the Orokin couldn't defeat them, neither can you." interrupts the Lotus.

"Enough. The Tomb is nearly open. Can't wait to see what's inside, just to spite you all." Tyl concludes.

"That fool! Dragon, you must survive longer. We can't allow him to open the Tomb." Teshin shouts.

After dozens more of dead Grineer fall to the ground, Tyl interrupts again.

"Ooh, what's that? A crack? Oh! Here opens the Tomb. Time to see what's inside… An Exilus Adapter? Why would I need this piece of inferior technology? But wait.. There's someone else in here. Show yourself!" he shouts.

"Natah, why have you left us? Why have you forsaken me?" says the mysterious figure, appearing as a burned version of the Lotus in smoke on my tab. "What a shame." he says and then disappears.

"Tenno, go to extraction. Now. I'll explain on the way." says the Lotus, losing her calm demeanor.

"That… that was Hunhow. The leader of the Sentients. I-.. I am his daughter." she continues on the way to extraction.

"Why didn't you say that sooner? You know we wouldn't give up on you just because of that. You've proven yourself multiple times to be better than that." I say to her calmly, earning a sad smile from her.

"Thank you, Tenno. You do not know how much this means to me. I'll inform the other Tenno around the Galaxy and hope they'll be as understanding as you."

 _Larunda Relay, Space_

Once Ordis touches down, I move towards the main hub to see everyone staying together, conversing or just trying to make each other feel better after such a big loss. I wait on the top of the stairs for a few seconds for everyone to notice me.

Once they spot me, they all turn around and watch me for a second, waiting for a response. "There's a lot to explain and even more to show, so instead of me doing that, I'll let our Guide have the honours." I say as I turn my palm up, opening the HUD and showing the Lotus to everyone, as she explains everything to the scared or hopeful Tenno

As she finishes, she adds a "I hope you can all forgive me for this." to which all the Tenno cheer and applause. In the crowd I see some familiar faces like the elemental guys, the armor crew, Teshin, Vauban and Ivara. After the transmission ends, they all cheer for me too for bringing them the Lotus back, with Ivara coming up and giving me a hug "I knew you could do it." she whispers and I hug her back with one arm, earning a few whistles from the crowd or groans from the girls, until Ivara realises properly what she is doing, shying away behind me.

"The quest is not done yet, my brothers." I shout towards them. "This is the leader of the Sentients that was just let free. More will definitely come. One more faction will stand between us and purifying this Galaxy, but we will defeat them like we did in the Old War!" I continue, with everyone raising their fists and cheering.

Taking a look behind me, I see Ivara staring at me before hiding even further behind me, making me chuckle. "Watch out, you're nearly climbing on me." I whisper jokingly to her, earning a slap to the back from her. "Ouch, alright." I say and stop teasing her.

Once the crowd disperses, she comes out from behind me and starts asking questions. "So what's the next mission, big guy?" she asks.

"Well, I'm thinking of going back to the Tombs and placing a bomb there, to make sure they don't open the other ones." I respond.

"Smart thinking. Need and heeelp?" she asks, tilting her head to the side in a cutesy manner, knowing I can't deny.

 _Sigh_ "Sure…"

 _Ariel, Uranus_

"Defend the bomb from waves of Grineer, Tenno. We'll need to close any Tombs before they can reach them too." begins the Lotus.

Moving by the bomb, I activate my armours while Ivara uses her zip line arrow and jumping on the zip line, providing cover fire from above and putting enemies to sleep. With our perfect synergy, we continue like this for about 3 more waves.

A Grineer Ballista spots Ivara and charges her shot, then fires and hits her foot, also hitting the zip line and making Ivara fall to the ground, stunned from the impact rifle, taking the full brunt of the fall. "No! How dare you!" I roar towards the Grineer, sprinting towards it before grabbing her head and pulling it out of her body with her spine attached, then dropping it to the ground and rushing back to Ivara. Seeing as she is having difficulties getting her shield back up, I focus all of my energy on my outer pelt, before it sprouts wings and rises off me, then roars at the Grineer troops, deafening them and freezing any in sight.

 _Ivara's PoV_

 _Goddamn it, I can't believe I got hit by a Grineer troop. It hurts so much I can't even think properly… I'm not used to taking damage, much less run out of shields_. Then, as I'm trying to lift myself up, I hear a roar, then the sounds of screaming Grineer, and when I turn my head I see a Knight-looking being, picking me up, and a hollow Dragon-looking pelt floating with wings.

"Ivara, are you alright?" the Knight I immediately recognize as Chroma asks me. "Wha… How…" I try to ask but the pain is too great. "Shhh, you'll be alright. I won't allow them to even touch you." he continues as I close my eyes.

 _Chroma's PoV_

Seeing her close her eyes, I look around as the Lotus warns me about the bomb being set. Picking her up, I run to the extraction point with my pelt covering me from enemy fire and killing any that dare approach

Not having time to waste, I load her first into my Liset, then move in too and tell Ordis to communicate with Ivara's ship cephalon to let her know of her condition and to meet us at the Relay.

Knowing there's a long way to the Relay, I shut off for little, trying to recuperate as much energy as possible.

 _Orbiter, Space_

Powered off, I feel something on my shoulder, but ignore it until it falls on my lap, waking me up. Looking down, I see Ivara's head on my lap, getting my heart to beat faster, yet I also feel a laugh building up as I shake her shoulder, waking her up to await her reaction.

"Huh… wha-… Good day, Chro-Chroma?!" she shrieks as she looks up, then looks around her and sees that she fell asleep on my lap, while I'm snickering. Letting her come out from her embarrassed mode, I move to the warframe spot, get on the dock and wait for her.

After a few minutes, she comes out too without making eye contact, making me snicker even harder. Hearing me laugh, she turns around, looks at me with the fury of a thousand Juggernauts and then continues towards Simaris.

Defeated, I follow after her, apologising on the way, not even knowing why I would apologise for something so minor, earning giggles from Tenno around that hear me.

Once we reach Simaris, he directly begins talking to me. "Legend, the Lotus has told me about your new mission. The Sentient Destroyer, Hunhow, has sent the assassin known as the Stalker, to hunt down this so-called "reservoir", which is the place where all Tenno get their powers from. First, you must find more information about Hunhow from the Grineer databases." he explains, then turns to Ivara. "Huntress, how are you doing? Has your recent mission proven fruitful?"

"More or less. We managed to destroy the digging site with the Tomb, but there were other complications..." she says and eyes me for a second.

"What kind of complications?" asks Simaris.

"Well.. I got shot down by a Grineer Ballista while defending, so Chroma had to use Effigy to defend both of us." Ivara continues while rubbing the back of her head.

"You weren't so clumsy before, Huntress. You could've killed whole bases of Grineer and now you get shot down by a Ballista? Something on your mind?" scolds Simaris, sounding as if he already knows the answer. "N-No. You know I'm used to covert missions not full-force defense." she puffs. "Legend, you must complete the Lotus' mission, it is of utmost priority." continues the cephalon, as I leave the room after a short bow and another quick apology.

 _Umbriel, Uranus - Normal PoV_

"Tenno, I must warn you, Hunhow has been trying to breach into my mind and find information about you. Be very careful. This is a Spy mission, we must find information about the Sentients and what do the Grineer know." warns the Lotus grimly.

 _First vault_

"Tenno… it says here that the Grineer have been excavating pieces of Hunhow. He can apparently control any of his pieces if he wants to. That might be how he is getting into my mind."

 _Second vault_

"Natah… I will restore you. I will bring back the true Lotus." suddenly starts Hunhow as the data is extracted.

"No, I will never betray the Tenno. You will never find them."

"I already have, infiltrating your mind. The Reservoir."

 _Third vault_

"Tenno, this is… this is a personal message sent to me? Excuse me, I'll have to contact the sender. Go to extraction."

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Tenno, Hunhow may be listening so this is all I'll say. The sender needs our help although I do not trust him. I marked the next mission on your navigation, head there fast." says the Lotus.

 _Cressida, Uranus_

"Hello, Tenno. Missed me?" said Alad V, suddenly appearing in the comms.

"Wait, what? I thought I killed you! You motherf-" Chroma says enraged at seeing his enemy, before he gets interrupted by the Lotus. "Tenno, I know you might not like this but Alad has information that we need about where one of Hunhow's parts are. Keep in mind, we all need to work against the real threat."

"You'd be surprised what infestation can do when used correctly." continues the Corpus. "As I was saying, the fragment is on an Orokin shipwreck, underwater."

Getting on the shipwreck, although wary of any traps Alad might've led him to, Chroma looks around for the fragment before saying "So where am I supposed to find it?"

"That I won't directly tell you. Where's the fun in that? It's close." his adversary responds.

"Once we're done with this, you'll be wiped out of existence." whispers the Tenno exasperated.

"You're getting closer, Tenno!" laughs Alad. After looking around a bit more, Chroma shoots down a mine which destroys a wall, leading to a hidden passage and into a chamber. "Huh, didn't expect you to find out so soon. No matter, here it is."

"Tenno, destroy it before Hunhow can assume control of it." says the Lotus.

Grabbing the relic, he brings it down with both hands while raising his knee, breaking it in half.

"Wait! No! It was a trap…" exclaims the Lotus, "He used that part in order to get to me and find the place of the Reservoir, he sent the Stalker to it. Tenno, we MUST intercept him before he gets there."

 _Neso, Neptune_

"Tenno, the Stalker is on his way through here. Go."

"Hmm, what is the Reservoir, Lotus? A Tenno weakness, perhaps?" asks Alad intrigued. "This is not your business. Our agreement is completed." responds the Lotus.

"Yes, but the Tenno are my investment, now. I must see this through."

Getting through the base, Chroma spots a Void Portal, with a Warframe-looking being entering the Portal, then closing it. Suddenly, a Drone appears in front of him. "A Battalyst, watch out Tenno, they're dangerous Sentient units. They can adapt to your damage."

Getting grazed by the Battalyst's lasers, the Tenno winces as it scrapes at his armor. Shooting the drone with his primary, he sees the drone get damaged before it releases a ray of light and the bullets start grazing off. "They can adapt only if you give them the chance!" shouts the Dragon as he dodges the Battalyst's second laser, grabs his arm and tries freezing it with Specteal Scream, destroying it. "Not so tough without your weapons, eh?" Quickly finishing it off with a stab to the head, he proceeds forward.

"Tenno, the Battalyst dropped a Void Key, use it quickly and get through the Portal. Do NOT allow the Stalker to go futher. Do not worry about the Sentients, the Void is poison to them."

Passing through the Portal, the warrior finds himself on another Orokin Tower…. Or something like it. _Something doesn't feel right_. thinks the warframe user.

 _Chroma's PoV_

"Tenno, find a console and check your location. This can't be a normal Orokin Tower, right?" says Alad, and for the first time, I actually agree with him. Running through the empty halls, I close in on the marked console… until I see a massive screen showing what is outside right in front of it. "Th-The Orokin Moon?! How?" shouts the Corpus. "All this time, everyone thought the Moon was destroyed, but it was in the void.. Lotus, how did you have the ability to do this?"

"Tenno, the Reservoir is the source of your power. Defend it with all you have, get to it and do not allow the Stalker access, he is leaving right now on a ship towards the moon."

"The tower you're currently in is used to mask the Moon's location, you must take the cloak off for your Cephalon to be able to take you to the Moon, Tenno." explains Alad V.

Powering up all the generators, the cloaking device stopped, showing the Tower in the Sol System again. "Ordis, prepare extraction now, we can't waste any time!" shouts the Tenno.

 _Plato, Lua_

"Hmm, I recall coming here once, Operator. We both did…" says Ordis nostalgic. "This is the source of the powers of every Tenno alive right now. Its secret drove the Stalker mad, making him perfect for Hunhow's powers and persuation."

Parkouring my way to the marker, I glance every few seconds around me, checking the landscape and the halls. They looked like what you would see in the void, except less vibrant and rubble everywhere. It's sad that with the death of the orokin, such beauty had to be destroyed too.

"Tenno, get there quickly. The Stalker is trying to crush the Moon initiating a Void Collapse, this will destroy the Reservoir, the Moon itself and you. Do whatever is in your power to stop this."

"Don't worry, he isn't leaving alive." I murmur.

Breezing through the halls of the once beautiful moon, I spot a big fountain, before suddenly getting a massive headache. "What's happening? What is this? Lotus?!" I shout as I clutch my head from the intense pain.

As sudden as the pain started, it went away and the whole room started shaking. From the water started rising a gold and white bulb-like structure. As my mind is trying to comprehend what is happening, the bulb spins once and its petals open up, creating a golden lotus. What definitely caught my eye though, was the human in the middle of the flower.

Waiting for some kind of message, I step forward as the humanoid falls down and I catch it. "Wh-what? What is-" as soon as I touch it, I black out.

"Goddamn… wait… why do I feel my mouth moving as I speak?" I whisper as I start looking around and at myself. _Wait… Is this… Am I…_

"This… This is you, Tenno. This is the source of your powers." the Lotus says with what sounds like pain and relief mixed.

"I-Wow." I say speachless. Trying to lift myself up from the ground, only to find out that after I-don't-know-how-many-years I can't even stand up.

"Put your hand on your warframe. You are full of void energy. You are the energy that your warframe always used and consumed."

Doing as told, my warframe comes to life and I suddenly see from its eyes again, except I feel with my normal body. "This is way too weird for me." I respond as I put my hand around my own shoulder and help myself carry me out towards Ordis. Going up the stairs, I realise too late what I forgot about and what is right behind me. "Stalker!" I shout as my warframe gets hit with the sword, but I focus even more energy into it and activate its Vex Armor. _That should keep it going…_ The Stalker, seeing as his attempts aren't working, changes his aim towards my body and fires concentrated Exalted Blades at me.

 _Alright, time to run!_ I think as my warframe picks up the pace and forces me forward faster so we can reach extraction, while I concentrate my energy into my palm to fire a laser which seems to be able to deflect the Stalker's attacks. As more and more sentient drones start landing, my warframe takes more damage and starts surging with a red aura, meaning the shields are done and health is running low, while I try my hardest to focus my energy, finally making it to the ship.

"Ordis, fire the engine, NOW!" I shout as soon as I get inside.

 _Orbiter, Space_

My warframe carries me to a room in the back of the orbiter once we get out. "Huh, I didn't see this room befo-AH" I grunt as the Stalker materializes in front of me. "Give me a break, man! Fight me when I can properly do so, will you?" I shout out of exasperation, earning a punch to the stomach and a his sword goes straight through my warframe, then he kicks it over so Chroma falls over with the sword inside it. "Oh… Shit. Alright then, show me what you got, big g-AHH" the assassin interrupts as he punches me straight in my helmet, then in the stomach.

As I crouch from the pain, he tries to hit me in the back of my head but I weakly put my hands and block his hit, then try to throw a punch but end up hurting my own armor. He then kicks me in the gut, forcing me down on my back and starts punching me into the stomach until I can't even breathe properly. While the so-called fight is going on, the pelt on Chroma starts surging with orange energy, then with cyan and then it starts moving the whole warframe along with it. "Co-come on, you little c _ough_ shit, that all cough you got?" I say, trying to distract him enough but he starts hitting even harder, then pulls out a Kunai from his belt, throwing it into my leg and leaving me unable to talk from the pain. The warframe breaks the sword in half and takes the other half into its hand, speeding to the assassin's back, surprising him and thrusting the blade through his back, forcing him to retreat. "Fuck, this really hurts. I don't even remember feeling proper pain…" I blabber as the warframe places me into a big chair-pod looking structure, where I get back my breath properly and start feeling the healing effect.

The doors open again. As I prepare for another stalker attack, a very familiar figure steps in the room. "Lo-Lotus?! How?"

"Hush, my child. Do not force yourself to speak. What you have done today saved the whole Tenno race and maybe even the Galaxy itself. You deserve some time to rest." says the Lotus, in person

"I thought I was…" "Yes, I know, and that is my fault. I hid that away from all of you. But this is what you are. More than human, yet once a child like any other. What do you remember?"

"I remember studying… I always enjoyed knowing more and the teachers loved when I corrected them… I knew every single thing about anything warfare…"

"You loved learning, always been a very smart child." the Lotus says.

"And then a fight… I remember the other kids laughing and one of them having the other by the throat. I didn't think it was funny…" I respond.

"Yes, you've always been one for justice, always thought violence wasn't good yet necessary"

"And then a hand, held in mine… I don't remember who it was… But I know they were scared, esepcially of the jump to Tau. She was afraid."

"That I'll leave you to discover, but from your recent interactions, you're close enough. Memories. From your time aboard the Zariman Ten Zero, before the Void-Jump accident. It was years before the ship was recovered. It was drifting dead in space, all her crew gone... except the children."

"We were just kids, but we stuck together. When they tried to treat us like rats in a lab, I stood up to them. I would not let them treat us like that." I recall.

"You were so brave - but the Orokin were afraid of you. The Void had changed you and you couldn't control it, no one could. They were about to destroy the orphans of Ten-Zero but Margulis... she loved you, she found a way..." she says fondly.

"She was brilliant, brave… she always sang to us. Stronger in heart than all of us together, she stood up to them, she sang to us in the cold and dark… When they executed her… I could not let that go." I say sadly.

"The Orokin murdered Margulis - used her work to create 'Transference'. Your mind - projected into a surrogate, strong enough to withstand your power. It felt like waking up, but it was just a lucid - second dream" she explained.

"I took up the sword to protect those that cannot do so themselves, for the innocent. I became fearless for my kin, forgetting anything about that feeling. I fought with honour, never letting myself get blinded by injustice. I became their worst nightmare."

"And so you became Tenno. Serving the Orokin... but bound by honor. As the Tenno grew, they founded great schools. The Tenno Ways. Do you see yours?" the Lotus asks.

"I see a Mountain… breaking the Sky. We pushed ourselves to outlast the enemy and become undefeatable and unkillable, to withstand all aggression without moving. We were juggernauts against the enemy." I respond.

"Your focus school will be Unairu." the guide concludes. "But we have so much more to do. Here in the Orbiter Transference will be even stronger. Command the Warframes... Make whole, this shattered world you've been given. Are you ready, Tenno?"

"Born ready."

 **Next one shouldn't take too long ya'll, I apologize again and see ya in the next one.**


	7. Chapter 6: Spreading the Word

**Alright, back with the continuation to the last chapter. This will mostly focus on our boy meeting some of his old friends. I'll bring back some serious action and fights in the next chapters, so if you hate stuff like romance, you might not enjoy this one.**

 **Cheesy stuff incoming.**

 **Italics is for thoughts/locations.**

 **I don't own Warframe.**

 _Orbiter, Space_

Waiting on the pod and trying to remember everything, I decide to check in the mirror and see how do I even look.

Judging by my face, I must be around 17 years old. A lot of scars can be seen on it, with the most visible one being a burn mark right on my right side of the neck going towards cheek. Looking further, I see my hair, which is a burgundy colour, looking a bit disheveled yet smaller on the sides, orientated towards the left side. Finally, my eyes are a golden colour, looking like Orokin gold, with a orange-ish sheen.

"Alright, Ordis. I'm fully healed now… Damn this is gonna take a while for me to get used to." I tell my cephalon as the pod encloses around me and I see and feel through my warframe again. "Go to Larunda, I'll have to give a pretty long speech to everyone to explain everything."

"Right away, Operator!"

 _Larunda Relay, Mercury_

Touching down on the dock, I get out of the warframe spot and start walking through the halls, while checking myself on the way there using the mirrors. _Damn, that's a lot of scars on this armor, especially the big sword wound…_

Reaching the doors to the middle of the Relay, I wait for a second to inhale and exhale as I step in. Once inside, everyone turns their attention to me, all sounds stopping.

"As you all remember, I went on a mission to aid the Lotus, before being notified of a bigger threat. I'm here to explain to all of you what is going to happen, since this galaxy might change forever." I start, looking through the crowd for a face to support me, seeing Ivara waiting.

"I will start with the beginning. The orokin moon, the once forgotten satellite that was pulled into the void to defend it from Sentient attacks, is now fully out and visible from the Earth. As I mentioned, Sentients are mobilising around planets and the moon itself, killing and searching any Tenno they find." Saying this, I hear a few murmurs starting and people starting to look worried.

"Continuing, there I have discovered something very important. The Reservoir. What is this, you may ask? It is where we, Tenno, the actual Operators, are kept and preserved. This, what we are controlling right now, is just the warframe. Allow me to show you." I say as I force more energy into the transference signal, allowing me to project myself there as the operator, standing by my warframe, a bit smaller than it.

After showing myself as a Tenno, everyone in the room starts murmuring or talking to each other in a more frantic matter. Knowing what they're going through, I let them talk for a little before I start talking again.

"I know how all of you feel. This is how I felt when I discovered myself too, but this will make us stronger. I already feel stronger, just from this link formed by me and my warframe. As I was saying, this Reservoir is on the orokin moon. The place might already be invaded by sentients, so we must all get there and recover the Tenno before the sentients realise how to open the pods. Everyone, all of us must go to the moon or we might be permanently put out of commission by those sentients. Are you all ready to find your true selves?" I ask, before the whole room goes in an uproar with affirmations, and we all go to the docking bay to get our ships as I become my warframe again.

On the way there, Ivara catches up with me and starts asking me more questions that possible every second: "How was the mission?" "How did you get all of these scars?" "Why do you have a giant sword scar in your back?" "Are you OK?"

"Alright, alright, slow down, will ya? I'll answer what I remember before you overloaded my brain with questions; The mission was pretty hard, nothing I couldn't handle; The scars are from sentients attacking me; The sword wound is from the stalker and yes, I'm more or less OK now."

"God damn it, I knew I should've come with you or atleast have someone to aid you." she says as she holds onto my arm when she starts to talk. "You could've died there and we wouldn't have been able to do anything. Some of the guys thought you were a goner since you took so long to come back…"

"Hey, what's this talk about death? Those guys couldn't kill me even if they tried harder. By the way, how do I look? I say as I project my true form again. Earning a stammer from her I know I've done my part. "Looks like I'm still taller than you, too."

"J-just... Shut up." she concludes as I switch back and chuckle.

 _Plato, Lua_

"This is the place, people. Kill on sight, nothing here is friendly. Follow my lead and we'll get there fast."

Going through the halls with all the Tenno, we easily overpower any sentients we see and take them down. Getting to the Reservoir, I see the pod I awakened from, then go a bit further in and I see dozens more, all waiting, with a few sentients trying to pry them open before they get dispatched.

Looking at each Tenno find themselves, I actually seem to recognise some of them… vaguely… As I look around, I realise Ivara is still waiting by my side. "Go on, check for your Reservoir." I prod her.

"Yeah, just… It's weird, you know? We've lived like this for so long and then all this happens…" she says.

"Come on, I'll come with you."

Getting to Ivara's pod, I wait by her as the pod opens, then quickly use transference to catch both her unconscious warframe and the Tenno falling. As she opens her mask and then eyes, I instantly get memories flashing through my mind.

She looks absolutely beautiful. Smooth face with a single visible scar that goes from her right cheek to her nose but looks pretty shallow, making her look around 17 too, long, wavy, red hair and light blue eyes with a sheen of light green. Seeing her like this amplifies my memories by x10, realising who the girl I was holding hands with in the ship before the launch to Tau was.

"Drake? Is it really you? Was it you all this time?" she says, making me feel as if slapped by reality. _That's my name… Now I remember…_

"Rosaleen?" I ask incredulously.

"Oh, it really is you!" she shouts as she hugs me tight. "After we got separated… after they took you… I thought… I…" she continues as she starts crying.

Rosaleen, or as I called her, Rosa, was basically the person I would give my life for in a second. Every kid there already knew I liked her and she liked me, but we were always too shy to actually make it something serious. We went through the best and worst before I was separated, which thankfully I haven't forgotten.

"I told you I won't just leave you or allow them to take me away. I had to stand up for all of you." I say while rubbing her back. "They feared what would happen if I heard about what happened to Margulis… That was their last mistake."

"Don't ever leave me again, please." she whispers and succumbs to exhaustion slowly.

After her passing out, I help her get back to her ship, then go back and help any others that went unconscious.

 _Larunda Relay_

Getting back at the Relay, I see all the Tenno going to the middle again, well, the Tenno that aren't completely passed out. They're standing around, each either trying out moved with their true form or hanging out with their warframes. "Well they sure didn't take a lot to get used to this." I mutter, then go towards the mission control room.

Arriving inside, I see Vauban in his Tenno form trying to figure stuff out and to test his warframe from outside. "Didn't take you long, either, to get used to this, huh?"

"Nah boss, what you just showed all of us.. did for all of us… this might've just improved us in every way possible." he says excited.

Vauban looked very… familiar. He was shorter than me, with brunette hair, green eyes and wearing Orokin-made glasses, giving him an intelligent look.

"Hey, you look familiar. Wait… Albert? Al?" I ask incredulously.

"Oh yeah, that was my name! Damn, I forgot it in all this time. Actually, hold on, are you Drake?"

Albert was basically my best friend there, always there for each other and if someone messed with one of us, that person would mess with both of us. The last time we saw each other was before the Orokin separated me from them… I still don't remember what they did after that, but I remember very lucidly the future parts.

"Man, who knew out of all of those children, it would be us that met now. I also met Rosaleen, which was apparently Ivara." I give a nostalgic sigh.

"Oh, damn. I knew you liked her before but that must've doubled or tripled now, heh?"

"Ain't even going to comment on that. Good to see you again, friend. Take your time getting used, I'll go talk to Simaris."

"Later, pal." he gives a wave.

 _Two more people to check in with and I can go rest in my ship after all that happened. Damn, I can't wait to take a nap or whatever it is that happens when I shutdown._

As I step inside, I see Simaris' eye glance towards me, before fully turning at me. "I have heard and been notified of everything that went on, Legend. I'm very impressed. You're definitely worthy of being called Legendary."

"Thank you, Simaris. I came here to notify you of everything but it seems like you already knew. Can I be of any assistance before I take my leave?" I ask.

"Only one. Have you seen my Huntress? She didn't get hurt, did she?" he asks a bit dangerously.

"No, no. She is just very tired from the whole ordeal. She's in her ship but should come here soon after she wakes up." I respond.

"Alright, thank you. Also, when you have some free time, please come here so I can scan your Tenno form in order to find some more information."

"Sure thing. I'll see you later."

 _Only Teshin left. He should be around here somewhere…_

Coming into the Conclave dojo, I see Teshin polishing his nikanas. "Something is very different in your energy, Champion. I had a feeling this would happen. You have discovered who you truly are, haven't you?" he says as he looks at me and sees me in Tenno form. "You look pretty in shape for someone that slept for centuries. Allow me the next time you come around to train you to fight hand to hand and with weapons made for your kind, not for warframes."

"Indeed I have, Teshin. All the others have, too. I would also be very honoured to be trained by you, especially in this form. The conclave might seriously change, now." I nod and respond.

"Very well, I assume you have work to do. I'll always be here to guide your kind on the path of Justice, Tenno. Remember that." he says as we exchange good byes.

 _I should go and check on Iv-Rosa before leaving, make sure she's alright._

Walking over to the docking bay, I look at the ships as I spot Ivara's, then request her Cephalon's permission to go inside.

 _Why am I not surprised._ I think as I enter the ship and see the decorations. The inside is… pink. Pretty much everything is either pink or purple, with decorations such as noggles. _Damn, these are hand-made, too._ Looking at the noggles, I spot some of the commonly-seen warframes, then at the end there's a Chroma noggle standing mighty in front of an Ivara noggle. _That's cute._

Going further into the ship, I spot Rosa sitting with her eyes closed in the pod, most likely sleeping, with her warframe collapsed at the side. Getting closer, I gently shake her shoulder to wake her up. Seeing as the action had its effect, I stop and wait for her to fully open her eyes.

"Huh? Drake? How did you get her- You didn't see anything weird, did you?" she quickly changes the question.

"Maybe, maybe not. Nice noggles, by the way." I say with a smirk, causing her face to go red and stammer an answer. "You're cute when you blush like that." I say with a bigger smirk, making her cover her face in her hands.

 _Should I… just go for it? Should I wait? I don't want to take advantage of her in her exhausted situation at the moment, but I can't keep putting it on hold and have what happened last time happen again... Fuck it_.

"You know, I wanted to tell you something that I've been meaning to tell you for like, what, centuries? Or however long we've been in cryostasis. I'll not let you go again without knowing I at least did this." and as I finish, I lower myself a little to be on her level and look into her glimmering hopeful eyes before I kiss her, as her mind goes in overdrive and she closes her eyes.

Getting back up, I continue with an "I love you" then look into her eyes to see her with the biggest smile I've seen yet. "If I wouldn't be nearly dead of exhaustion I would hug you to death." she says happily. "You don't know for how long I wanted you to say this."

"Same here, ever since we've met as kids... I'll leave you to your rest and go in my ship to get some too. I'll see you later, alright? Sleep tight."

"Sleep tight, my Knight." she says lowly, looking with a dreamy expression towards me.

 _Damn, she had it for me harder than I first thought. Today might just be the best day yet, to be honest._ I ponder as I get out of her ship, only to be spotted by a few Tenno passing by and get a few sets of smirks or low cheers, causing me to face palm.

Arriving in my ship after such a long mission, I pet Wyvern then go and instantly fall asleep in the pod. The balance of the Galaxy might have just tipped in our favour today. _From tomorrow, I'll start purifying this system even if I have to do it by myself._

 **Alright, the next chapters will be mostly action, fights and missions with some romance mixed in now that I've finished this part of the story. Still got a long way to go, see ya'll in the next one.**


	8. Chapter 7: Bane of Blight

"Hey, Ordis. What'cha got for me? Any new missions on the star chart?" I ask my cephalon.

"Not yet, Operator. Strange. Seems like the Grineer and Corpus have ta- Nevermind, apparently the Lotus needs your assistance."

"Alright then, play the message."

 _Tenno,_

 _Alad V's infested ships are slamming into populated centers all around the system. He's using these ships like spore pods to spread his Mutalist plague. Everyone is affected. Equally concerning are the new strains of Infested he's using in this attack._

 _There are two courses of action. First, we must extinguish each Infestation at its source. I will be issuing Bounties, so that we can cut down as many of these new Infested as possible. Pay attention to your Navigation Console for updates._

 _Secondly, we need you to deal with the source of the problem. I have sent you the details of a mission to locate Alad V and destroy his lab. L_ _eft unchecked this plague will spread out of control. You must start immediately, there is no time to waste._

 _The Lotus_

"Fucking Alad V, of course. Why am I not surprised…"

"You'll get him, Operator. Preparing the space jump." Ordis concludes.

 _Naeglar, Eris_

"Hello, inhabitants of the Origin System!

It is my singular pleasure to announce that today is the first day of a new empire. An empire populated not by Corpus, not by Grineer, and certainly not by Tenno. No, the Mutalist Empire will be populated by you. A glorious new you, baptized by Mutalist Flesh.

You call this a disease, an infestation? I call it Unity, one army under me. Welcome to your new species."

"Of course…" I mutter.

"Collect as much data as you can, Tenno. We need it to find Alad's whereabouts." says the Lotus briefly.

Running through the vaults, I expertly hack into the systems and extract the data before anyone has a chance to do something about it.

"I know you can hear me, Tenno. I sent you some gifts that you might like, along with the whole crew of that ship!"

"Large masses of infested signatures detected, he sent the Infected after you. Get the last data mass and get out."

As I move towards the third vault, I see maybe a hundred of infested killing the corpus crew all at once and infecting them. Slicing through any of them that come my way, I get the last data and call extraction.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Tenno, the data you collected reveals that Alad V is planning to infect a warframe and he's gotten a hold of one. I guess I don't need to tell you how important it is that this doesn't happen. Take out the hives planted in the infested ships he's using in order to stop the infested."

"Unbeliavable… Can't wait to get a hold of him again. Do I have to do all of this? Can't I just destroy the ships altogether? Pretty sure nobody can use them now."

"… a valid tactic. Do whichever you feel would be faster. Time is of the essence."

As I mod my archwing and make sure it is in prime condition, I tell Ordis to pilot at the three main infested ships, Brugia, Saxis and Kala-azar, then use my Tactical Nuke function from my Elytron, blowing up the cores of each ship, before seeing them blow up part by part, earning compliments for each major explosion from my archwing.

"While you were destroying the main ships, I traced back the signals of the ships, which were still linked from before the infested took over. I found the main ship. Head to these coordinates."

 _Xini, Eris_

"This is the place of the laboratory. Be careful, I fear we may have been too late."

"Warframes can't get infested… Can they?" I ask the Lotus.

"It's more… Complicated than that. I will explain this to you later. For now, focus on your mission."

Eerily enough, there were no screeches or infested sounds, like the whole ship was desolated. Making sure to keep my guard up, I move forward to where the supposed laboratory is.

As I get inside the room, I hear a loud bang and I feel a gigantic pain on my forehead, realizing I've just been shot. Turning around quickly to look for the source of the noise, I see another warframe on my right. This one looking like a pistol wielder from the days, except feminine and even with a cowboy hat.

"I'll just assume you're not an ally since you just shot me, so allow me to get over with this." I say as I activate Vex Armor, still a bit dizzy.

"This, Tenno. This is the pinnacle of infested engineering. Imagine more of these. An army of them…" Alad says as he laughs maniacally.

As I shoot half of my clip at the warframe, I see it get damaged but then some kind of energy envelops it, sending the rest of the bullets straight in me, piercing into my warframe.

"Alright, you wanna play dirty?" I ask as I parkour after the dodging warframe, freezing the ground with Spectral Scream and having the empty warframe slip, pushing my sword into it as it runs back to the other corner of the room, and grabs some kind of akimbo pistols.

Before I realise what's happening, I start getting pummeled by bullets, raising my armor and Fury continuously. Activating Elemental Ward, I envelop myself in Ice Armor which slows down my attacker and allows me to get in close, hitting the gunner with the hilt, my knee and ending it with a sword through the stomach.

"Don't worry, Tenno. It was an empty shell of what it used to be. Just an infested proxy."

"Nah, that felt good. No worries."

"Don't get lost in your rage, Tenno. I know how much you liked dishing out punishment to the deserving, but remember your ideals and justice."

"You're right, justice comes first, and in this case, justice was given."

"Nnhh.." I hear a groan behind me and quickly turn around, only to see the warframe try to get up. As I prepare to stomp onto its helmet, it stops me "Please…. Help…"

"Hold on, Lotus, is she alive? Fuck, I have to get her somewhere safe."

"Tenno, try giving her a boost of void energy. It serves as an adrenaline shot for warframes, allowing them to continue."

As I place my hands on her back, I focus my energy and put as much as I can from my own energy pool. "Come on…"

"Aah. Where… Where am I? Who are… you?" the girl says with a low voice.

"Long story short, I kicked your infested ass back into the Orokin Age and apparently made it stop controlling you." I explain as she tries to get up and falls but I grab her and help her to the ship."

"Oh… What now, then?" she asks.

"I'll get you to a Relay, since I might've done more damage than I realised, honestly intending to kill you."

The rest of the road was a silent walk to the Liset and once we reached the Relay, I gave her to the healers there receiving some praise and thanks from her. "Before we go, what's your name?" I ask.

"Cassidy. You?" she asks.

"Drake. I've got some things to settle, sorry again and get well soon."

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Message from the Lotus, Operator."

 _Tenno, Alad V is out of ways to create new infested. I marked his location on your map, since it is now the only one of its kind. I'd suggest a teammate since you'll need someone to help you fight against his apparent controlling device. Happy hunting._

 _-The Lotus_

"God damn it... Ordis, contact Simaris. I need to ask for his permission to grab someone." I say.

 _Alad V's ship, Eris_

"Oooh, we're going on an assassination mission together!" says Ivara happily as she hugs me.

"Yeah, Alad V's been a pain in the ass for too long so I gotta take care of him." I respond.

"Oh. That guy. I thought he was dead when you rescued me?" she says, suddenly in a more silent tone.

"That's what everyone thought. Apparently infested tissue can revive you or something." I say while walking with her in tow.

"Well, either way, he is surely dead now. Will we do this silen-"

"Tenno! How nice of you to visit me with your little love. Especially after KILLING MY CHILDREN AND MY PERFECT PROJECT!" Alad V shouts in the comms.

"Well, not really perfect if it got killed though, right?" I respond amused.

"My brothers… CAPTURE THEM!"

"Good luck, love!" says Rosa as she turns invisible and starts impaling the incoming infested to the walls.

Sighing, I start cutting through the incoming waves of infested while moving forward with my objective.

"I'll capture both of you and torture each in front of THE OTHER!"

While getting closer to the objective, I fail to see an incoming ancient grapple, which wraps around neck and nearly puts me to the ground but Rosa shoots it and snaps the wire, then we continue to Alad's location.

"By the way, he has a controlling device somewhere. It will control one of us but while that happens, I guess the other has to damage Alad as much as possible while he is powerless. Please be careful, I can't afford to lose you."

"Got it." she says and we move in, spotting the former Corpus leader waiting for us in the middle of the room.

"Hello again, Tenno. It's time to fight perfection! This infested tissue can sustain more damage than any other fle-" he shouts as he gets interrupted by one of Ivara's arrows which hit his neck, which quickly closed the hole that the arrow created.

"Nice shot, try to do that a few more times and we should be fine." I compliment.

"Thanks, I've been practicing for quite some time." as I move in close, I whisper to her ear "Prepare your hardest hitting power and be ready to pummel him into the ground when I say so."

"ARE YOU TWO DONE?!"

As I jump towards Alad, I surprise-attack him, before punching him in the gut then piercing his hand with my sword as his flesh grows back. He quickly grows some kind of sword made out of infested tissue, cutting horizontally at me and then having his infested friends charge me. Flipping back, I activate my armor and my ward, then let the pets deal as much damage as I can take, then slicing them in bits in one motion. "Let's see how you deal with even more brute force then!"

As I stomp towards him, the floor itself and the infestation on it starts cracking and dying out, as he tries to dodge my hits. He tries to activate his controlling device on me, but as soon as it latches onto me, I activate effigy and the device turns towards the pelt, trying to control it. Unfortunately for him, he didn't to change his position, so I quickly delivered a massive blow to his knee, shattered his foot and then hit the device in his hand even harder with a chop motion, blowing it up. "Now!"

As Alad is trying to regain his breath, I see Ivara preparing a fully charged Artemis Bow, concentrating all of her arrows in one giant one. Backflipping, I see the confusion in the corrupted leader's eyes as the last thing before he gets completely evaporated by the sheer strength of the arrow.

"Holy shit. How much energy did you put into that?" I ask in amazement.

"Basically all of my energy, damn that drained me but it was worth it. Asshole had it coming." she says as she uses me to gain her breath. "You know I can help you back to the ship, right?" I suggest.

"Yep! What are you waiting for?" she answers cheekily.

"You aren't that tired, are you?"

"Can't hear you, too tired." she answers quickly and pretends to fall asleep as I sigh and carry her back.

 _Normal PoV_

 _Later, Orbiter, Space_

As Drake got back from his mission, he started training in his true form in order to get himself back in form.

"Damn it, I'm so weakened I can hardly do any demanding physical activity. I can hardly even do 30 push-ups now…"

"Operator, perhaps you should take it easy? Try some other kind of exercises. You can try mental exercises too! From what I understood, you were one of the best in therms of mind."

"Huh, I could do that while I rest. I'll check the codex for new stuff and strategies. Thanks, Ordis."

"No problem, Oper- Oh. You have a new message. It's from… a cephalon?" he says intrigued. "Check it, Operator."

 _CALLING ALL CEPHALONS, PRECEPT 44_

 _CEPHALON STRANDED. SHIP IMMOBILIZED. POWER FAILING. EXTINCTION EVENT._

 _Please help me! Assemble this communication endpoint to establish contact._

"Oh, Operator! We must help this cephalon! It is my duty as a fellow cephalon to follow precept 44. Will you please do this? For me?"

"Of course, Ordis. The least I can do. Patch him in if you can." Drake says.

"Hello? Who is this?" I hear and see a cephalon, looking like a combination of Ordis and Simaris.

"This is Cephalon Ordis and Operator Drake. We received your distress signal and we are willing to help in any way we can." says Ordis to him.

"My name is Jordas. My ship has been infested and it is taking over me. I nee- don't need your help."

"But didn't you just send the distress signal? We can help you take care of the infestation." Drake responds.

"Yes, excuse me. The infestation is trying to take over me and I need all the help I can get. Your best bet would be the pherliac pods, in order to attract all the infested to you. All the components are acquired from juggernauts." Jordas answers.

"Ordis, check the foundry. I'm pretty sure I got enough resources for those considering the way those juggernauts went down last time."

"Checking… You're right Operator, crafting them into the pods right now. Should take one hour."

 _Drake's PoV_

"Alright, I'll be reading the Codex." Minutes and minutes passed, while I was reading and checking on facts or pieces from the war, scattered about, all in the Codex, finding stuff such as elemental combinations or powerful weapons. _I'll have to get some of these some day. Make up loadouts for each of the main factions. Looks like I'll need Magnetic for Corpus, Corrosive for Infested and Radiation for Grineer. The syandanas and armor sets don't look half bad either. Maybe I should buy some of them, I gotta look the part if I'm going to be liberating a solar system._

"Foundry is complete. Please retrieve your items." I hear in the ship.

"Hold on, Tenno. Those pods are not powerful enough. It must be enough to attract a whole ship of infested to you." Jordas cuts in.

"So what do you want me to do?" I ask.

"The Golem will not wait. Enhance them quickly using Argon Crystals."

"Consider it done. What is your location?" asks Ordis.

"Bring them to Eris, hurry! Don't regret this.-"

 _Golem, Eris_

"Alright, Operator. The preparations are ready, go at the marked point."

"What is your business here with those pherliac pods? You Tenno are all scavengers, thieves!" Jordas boomed over the comms.

"Wait, haven't you said that-" I try to communicate before getting interrupted.

"What are you talking about? The Golem shall kill your for your ignorance!"

"…what have I gotten us into…" mutters Ordis.

Getting into a pretty spacious room, I see a big mass of infested fle- _Shit._

"Operator, that's a Behemoth Juggernaut! Get out of there!"

"Hell no, I spent way too much time without kicking someone's ass, so this will have to do." I say, while cracking my knuckles and activating my buffs as the Juggernaut is preparing to charge.

Wasting no time, we both start running towards each other, the Juggernaut obviously being faster and hitting quicker. Embracing the attack, I feel my energy pulsate as the intensity of my powers grows. Pivoting my feet into the metal floor, I stop the Juggernaut dead on and headbutt it, breaking one layer of tough shells on his head, then punching him back.

As he backs up and starts charging his ranged attack, I materialise my Boltor and start pelting its stomach with bolts. As the Juggernaut is stupified by the attack on its weak points, I bring out my sword, roll forward as the beast brings itself round and push the blade into its throat.

"I should've seen this coming, Operator. Jordas used me to attract you here. He was used by the infestation." mumbles my Cephalon in the background.

Seeing as the enemy wants to keep going, I keep pushing the sword into its jaw and then channel my energy into the blade, straight up cutting the whole lower jaw of the beast. Ripping off one of its' teeth, I put it into my inventory and leaving.

"Hold on, I detect a much, MUCH bigger life form approaching… Preparing extraction quickly, we have to get out of here! The ship is starting to fall apart!" And true to his word, the ship started slowly breaking in pieces from the excess of explosions and infestation. "Sending Elytron."

In the moment the Archwing reaches me, I jump out one of the windows as Elytron sets up on my back and fly "up". Unfortunately, the massive infested life form that Ordis found was the Golem itself.

"We will assimilate you. Every flesh will be and is ours to feed on."

"Oh great. That's fantastic." I mutter and ammo check my Imperator.

"You cannot hope to defeat all of us. Give up now and your end will come faster."

"Why would I want to die sooner, dumbass?"

Trying to surprise attack me, the whole Golem tries to hit me full speed but I dodge and start shooting it, before realising that the flesh is too tough for my weapon, so I start shooting towards the Golem's engines.

"Resistance is futile." the beast says as Mutalist Ospreys come out of it as it charges up a laser.

Once the Ospreys are into range, I give short thrusts with the Elytron just enough to get into cutting range of the Ospreys, then proceeding to cut them into bits and pieces. What I did not see though, was the big laser heading straight for me. "Fuck, not again..." I say and quickly power up, bracing for impact. **BOOM** As the laser hits me, it explodes into me and sends me flying hundreds of meters away, into lone chunks of metal and hitting them. "Alright, Elytron. Time to play dirty too. Shoot as many missiles as you can towards the flying dick's engines." I say angrily and start aiming with my machinegun at the beast while rockets go off from behind me.

As the battle rages on, I spot one of the engines starting to give bend quite a bit, so with a quick word, my archwing launches a barrage of rockets straight at it, blowing it up and stopping the Golem in place.

"Got you now, asshole!" I shout and then say to my archwing "Elytron, prepare the big one. This guy needs to learn what pain is."

"Preparing for destruction." it says in its' robotic voice.

"Boost!" I shout and the archwing gives a massive boost, flying me to the Golem in a matter of seconds. Spotting the blown up engine again, I get in close before the infested boss can regen its shield again and command Elytron. "Nuke it!"

"Bombs away."

*BOOM* The Golem goes up in flames at first, then instantly explodes into bits of gore everywhere, with an infested-looking robotic eye being blasted at me. "This is the thing he shot lasers with, huh? I'll take this as a trophy, then. Ordis, we did it. Prepare evac- Hold on, is that a warframe?" I ask.

"Scanning. Warframe is Atlas. It is unconscious, but apparently still alive."

"Well then, pick him up first. I'll question him later when he's alright. Gonna have to do another trip to the infirmary." I say and travel to the Relay, sheepishly giving him to the healers there, once again bringing a half-dead Tenno.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Operator, I am so sorry for blindly following Jordas, I was fooled by our cephalon precepts. I understand if you want to change cephalons." Ordis says first things first.

"You know I don't care about that stuff, Ordis. Besides, I got a kickass battle out of it, so I'm happy." I respond, trying to cheer the cephalon up. "You'll get over it. Ain't that right, Wyvern?" "Woof." "See? Even Wyvern agrees. Also, I remember reading some stuff on the Codex that I wanted to check out. How are we doing on platinum?"

"Surprisingly good, Operator. Weird…" he responds.

"Alright then. I'll order some stuff from the Market, might aswell do that."

Opening up the Market, I spot a lot of interesting and useful stuff I could get. _Hmm, let me get better looks first of all._

Once I go to the Appearance section, I check out the armor sets and try to see which ones look the best. _Riv Elite looks promising. I'll get that._ Then, I check the Syandanas. _A lot of really good ones, damn._ I think and browse through before spotting a really good one. _Repala Syandana. Tenno-made. Looks pretty amazing._

Being done with that, I go to the weapons section, deciding I'll just buy the blueprints this time. Besides, my weapons are starting to get dull. _Shotguns? Always found them fascinating. I'll get the Tigris._ and then tab out into the Secondaries. _I think I'm doing fine here, actually. No complaints with my pistols so far._ Last but not least, I check the melee section and think of all the options. _I'll take the Silva and Aegis. I've got some ideas for it._

"Ordis, to the Larunda Relay again. I have to check on some stuff. And no, I'm not going there to brag." I include.

"Let's say I believe you, Operator. Preparing travel."

 _Larunda Relay, Mercury_

Touching down, I go the usual way and search for Vauban, finding him talking to some Tenno.

"How's it going so far, Al?" I ask once I see them look towards me.

"Looking good, my friend. Trying to impress someone?" he snickers along with the other Tenno. "And to answer your question, things have been peaceful so far. The archwing trainings and all of that are going well too."

"What were you talking about, if you don't mind me asking?" I ask.

"Oh, I was just about to tell you about this. We've finally put together the clans function. Any Tenno can make his own clan, carry his own emblem, invite others and even have their own Dojo." he goes on, excited about his work.

"Oh really? And how would one start their clan?"

"Well, first, they have to talk to the leader of the Relay they choose to be part of, AKA you, or I guess me in case you're gone. Then, I'll take care of the technical stuff, and the Dojos will be built by the drones we stole from the Corpus and the Grineer defectors. They will also be invisible, since we use the same technology as the Lisets."

"Alright, I want to create a clan right now." I say casually.

"Wait, right now?"

"…Yeah?"

"Well then, alright. You will own the first clan probably ever. What should it be named?" he asks.

"Hmm, something simple but very representative for what we'll do and special. **The Chosen Ones** or **TCO** for the tag, I guess."

"Cheesy. Cliché. I like it."

"Got a better idea, smartass?" I answer jokingly.

"Nah, yours is actually pretty good. You'll be the special forces of the universe. Imagine hearing that over the universal broadcasts: "The Chosen Ones has liberated another planet, they're truly invincible!" Ha! It will strike fear into your enemies and hope into your allies. I'll tell the guys to get onto building the Dojo as soon as possible. Any members you want in right now? Also, want to design your badge?"

"Members? Only one I know for sure and you know her too. Badge? Sure. Put the Tenno emblem which is the Lotus but make it golden with angel wings."

"Consider it done. See you later, pal."

Deciding to go check on Ivara, I go over to Simaris' room. As I am about to get inside, I see Ivara leaning over the missions panel, checking for stuff to do, giving me a pretty good view which makes me trip and fall flat on my face inside the room, gaining the attention of both of them.

"Um, Drake?" she asks slowly.

"Don't even. Just pretend you didn't see anything."

"What's wrong Legend, you got too enthusiastic there?" Simaris snickers.

"Don't you have something better to do, oh-so-great Cephalon?" I ask him.

"So how are you? Any new adventures?" asks Ivara as she holds my hands and looks at me expecting something.

"Well other than taking down a whole ship and its infested brother down, nothing much." I respond slyly.

"Oh, tell me all about that! Nice armor, by the way. Makes you look much more intimidating." she says with stars in her eyes.

"In a second, for now I wanted to tell you that you're now officially, if you want of course, in my clan." I announce then proceed to give her information about the clan and my little adventures while she listens completely. As I'm about to finish, I get interrupted by a loud ringing coming from my comms, before the Lotus appears as a projection from my hand.

"Tenno. This is urgent. The Stalker is taking some Tenno and their Warframes to his side. These ones are very dangerous. Are you up to stop his acolytes?"

"You bet I am." I conclude.

"I'm coming too!" Ivara exclaims.

 **Author's Note: Phew, finally finished this chapter. Gonna have to move if I want to finish the story, but at the same time I want to keep it a bit slow so I can get at least some of the lore in warframe right and not be forced to fully implement mine, not saying that it would be bad, just that some people might not be interested. By the way, the clan name isn't set in stone, I'm not too creative with naming so I can change it if ya'll request it (if I like it, of course.) I also have plans for the warframes that require quests in order to be made, like Atlas and Mesa here.**


	9. Chapter 8: Unexpected Allies

**Ey there. New chapter up and all that goodness. Enjoy.**

 ** _Italics_** **for thoughts/locations/changes in the view.**

"The last known location of the first acolyte, Angst, was on a Grineer Galleon named Anthe. Go there and try anything you can to stop her."

 _Anthe, Saturn_

"It is not time for your trial yet, go back or face the consequences." says the hostile warframe which looks like a Valkyr with Stalker's helmet.

"No, it's not time for my trial. It's time for yours." I say and then let out my effigy in a casual position, making it look like me. "Rosa, use a noise arrow to attract her here."

As she lets out the arrow, random noises start coming out from it, even attracting some random Grineer.

"You give me no choice. You are beyond repair." says the acolyte again as she tries to cut me down in a swipe with her claws, only to realise that she got outsmarted. Before my foe could move again, I surge power into Effigy which scream-stuns her and freezes her ankles with the black ice.

"Virtue gives us the strength of a thousand Tenno!" she shouts as she unleashes Hysteria and breaks the ice, then parkours towards us. "Ivara, Prowl! She cannot be damaged in this state!"

"I got you." she says and goes into Prowl, then shoots an invisible arrow at Effigy while the enraged opponent is trying to swipe at me, cutting me a few times.

Seeing the enemy starting to run out of energy, I slide towards the last known location of Effigy and as she closes in, my pelt re-appears and freezes her hands and ankles this time too as she is completely out of energy.

"You can not stop shadows from appearing together with light, so you will not stop us." the Valkyr says.

"I'll die before I stop trying."

"That can be arranged." she says and tries to headbutt me, but I dodge and punch her in the stomach, then elbow her in the back of her head, cracking her helmet and forcing her to lower her head then drawing my sword. "Die, heathen." I say and as I'm about to swipe down but see red smoke coming out of the cracks from the helmet and hear the Tenno say "Help!" stopping me.

"Rosa! Give me a hand here." I shout.

"What's the problem, dear?" she asks as she comes out of her invisibility.

"I think she's still able to be saved. Do you have some blunt arrow?"

"Yeah… I mostly use them on Corpus?" she says confused.

"Shoot her on the head, medium power." I say as I hold Angst's head in place.

When Rosa's arrow connects with the head of the acolyte, her helmet shatters completely, red smoke coming from the whole warframe before a normal Valkyr with a Bastet Helmet remains.

"Hey, you all good?" I ask as I shake her shoulder and get her to look at me.

"Damn, you could've done that without nearly killing me." she says.

"No problem. Can you walk? I'll take you to Larunda Relay."

I help her get up and she takes a few steps to check, looking like she's fine. "Larunda? I'm from Kronia." she says.

"Alright, I'll take you there then. About time for me to check that Relay too. What's your name?" I ask.

"Clara. Who are you? I've never seen a warframe like yours."

"I'm Drake, this is Rosa." I say and point to Ivara who gives a little wave. "My warframe is Chroma, you'll hear about it later. Let's go, you can go in Rosa's Liset until we find your Cephalon."

 _Kronia Relay, Saturn_

"Careful out there, Operator. These aren't the same Tenno that you know on Larunda, you're going to have to deal with these too." Ordis notices me once we touch down.

"Don't worry, I'll kick their asses too."

As we get past the docking bay, I already see changes around the Relay. For example, the guards here are much more equipped and armed than the ones at Larunda and they seem to be less organised. The lights around the Relay also seem a bit less lit up, giving the impression of a more mercenary/rogue-ish relay.

"Well hello there, ladies. You brought us another nice friend of yours, Clara?"

"Don't you know there's a toll you have to pay to go inside, girlie?" the other asks Rosa.

As I come from behind Ivara, they instantly close their mouths once they see me properly. "Did you say something, little guy?"

"We'll uh-We-ll let you go in." the first one said and quickly moves out of the way.

"Alright, if you want you can go now, we'll check out the Relay for a bit more then head back to catch more of your little friends." I say to Clara and hold Rosa's hand.

"I think I'll stay with you for a little, since you'll definitely get into trouble around here."

Moving towards the middle of the Relay, the Hub, I get a few looks and sideway glances thrown at me by other Tenno, until I reach the doors there.

Opening them and walking down the stairs, I ignore the stares I get and walk through the crowd, checking all the new stuff on the Relay.

"Is this how people always look at you?" Rosa whispers to me.

"Meh, you stared at me more tha-" I begin to say but a slap on my hand and hear a giggle from Clara and mutters from Rosa.

As people start whispering, I hear a cough behind me and turn around to what appears to be, to my surprise, a gilded Ash. A Prime.

"Welcome to our little piece of heaven, stranger. I don't believe we've been introduced." he says, looking me up and down.

"I am Jax, the leader of the Kronia Relay and one of the few known Prime users. I can't say I've ever seen a warframe like yours since I've awakened."

"I'm Drake, the leader of the Larunda Relay, the one and only user of the Chroma warframe. Never seen a Prime before. This is Ivara, my girlfriend." I say and we shake hands.

"Nice to meet you, my lady. So you're the one that stirred up the whole Sol System, huh? I heard great things about you, you don't mind if I check them, do you?" he asks with a smile in his voice, moving towards the fighting rooms, along with quite a lot of Tenno.

"I could use some warming up." I say slyly and let my void energy rip once I get to the other end of the terrain, letting the lines on my warframe glow like veins and on my Syandana.

"Cocky, are we? I'll help you get rid of that." he says and materializes his daggers around his waist and a Dakra Prime on his back.

 _Recommended Battle Music: The Score - Legend_

 _Jax vs Drake, Normal PoV_

"Catch this!" Jax shouts and throws a dagger at Drake, which in turn activated Vex Armor and lets the dagger impale his chest, pulverizing the weapon on impact. While the dagger was travelling, Jax was running at full speed towards Drake which in turn sidestepped and tried to kick the Ash user, getting counter-attacked with a punch in the leg, then an attempted elbow to the head which got blocked easily by Drake.

"Go Drake!" shout Clara and Rosa in the stands.

Seeing as hand to hand combat won't work in his favour, Jax started throwing multiple shurikens and daggers, which Drake didn't even try to avoid as he dived towards him, only serving to buff him further.

Teleporting behind the Chroma warframe, Jax tried to use a finisher on the confused warrior, only to have his dagger break at the contact with the tough pelt, forcing him to smoke bomb and run away.

"That's some serious armour you have there. Looks like I'll have to bring in the big guns." Said the Ash user as he unsheathed his Dakra Prime, filling it with void energy and expertly handling it.

"That won't be enough, unfortunately." Says Drake, buffing himself with his ice armor too this time.

Going in for an invisible down sweep with the sword, Jax gets slowed down by the Ice effect of the armor and reveals himself, then teleports all over the place to distract Drake, before using his ultimate and piercing the dragon's pelt with his sword, nearly reaching the other side, earning gasps from the crowd and a muffled shout from Drake, before the dragon falls to the ground.

"That's very unfortunate. I really thought the stories were true." Jax says and looks at the downed beast. In the stands, Rosa was already on her way to get to Drake, followed by Clara, before getting interrupted along with everyone else by the suddenly blinking lights and the feeling of pressure suddenly rising.

Everyone was looking at Chroma as he was getting up, glowing with some kind of voidish energy and hearing chanting coming from him.

In the split of a second, the ground started rumbling as the Dragon warframe began running towards the Prime user, piercing the steel surface of the fighting room with the last step, pivoting into the ground before delivering a lightning-quick punch to the neck, then a kick that forced Jax into the air, before falling down and cracking the terrain with the impact. As he slowly got up, the Assassin tried again to use his ultimate on his opponent. Being nearly at the peak of Scorn, Drake bent the Dakra Prime about to hit him again with his hands and then grabbed his rival, throwing him as hard as possible into the ground, creating a crater with the warframe.

While his opponent was trying to move away, the beast was moving at the same pace with him, grabbing him by the neck and preparing to twist his head. Seeing the action as going a bit overboard, all the guards started aiming at him. "Let him down, you won!" shouts one of the guards.

"Drake! Don't!" shouts Rosa as she runs up to him and tries to force his hand down, gradually calming him down.

With the glow going away, he regains conciousness.

As the crowd stood speachless, Drake went over to Jax and offered him a hand "Sorry for that, pal. Got a bit carried over." then helped him up.

"H-How can you hold such power? You aren't even a prime yet yo-"

"That's where you're wrong. I technically am a Prime. I'm the only user of this warframe. While you might be a Prime, you can't overpower an Alpha warframe, something made to overpower everything else. Also, what you just did there was piss me off, triggering some kind of power that I'm still trying to understand." he explains.

"I… I understand, though you should be careful, I'm one of the newest and weakest primes out there… You know, since you beat me, you can technically be the leader of the Kronia Relay now." he says a little sad.

"Sounds interesting. How about I propose something to you like I did with the last Larunda leader. I'll be the leader as a title, you're the leader when I'm not around here, which might be quite a lot." Drake suggests as Rosa takes her place by his side.

"Sounds good to me, sir." Jax says jokingly and the crowd cheers once more and starts chanting Drake's name.

"Oh please don't start calling me that."

 _Drake's PoV_

Bidding farewell from Jax, I turn to Clara. "You know, I see a lot of potential in you. If you want, you can join my clan. I'll train you to control your powers properly and maximize your potential." I say.

"That… that's very kind of you, Drake. I'd actually really appreciate that." she says and shakes my hand.

"I'll go hunt the other rebel Tenno down now, since I know we can at least help them repent. I'll announce you when our Dojo is ready and we'll set up our base properly. Farewell." I say and get into my Liset.

"See you then, Drake! Thank you so much again for helping me!" she shouts and waves with her clawed hand at me.

"By the way, Rosa. Good work with the save there. Who knows what would've happened if I had killed that guy."

"Don't worry about it, I wouldn't let that happen. Besides, you're going to make it up to me later, won't you?" she says with a dangerous tone.

"Y-Yes, dear. Of course."

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Ordis, start the healing and cleaning station in the Arsenal, I need a little refresher." I say.

"Right away, Operator. I take it everything went well?"

"Yeah, defeating a Prime, becoming the leader of another Relay, the usual." I say and close my eyes, smiling.

"You truly are invincible, Operator. Who knows, maybe your fight against injustice will succeed."

"It will, Ordis. Whether I'll be the Saviour or the Martyr, this System went too long in darkness."

 _Despina, Neptune_

"Tenno, I sense 2 acolytes in this facility. Be very careful of them."

"That just means I'll be done with them faster." I mutter and start walking.

"These guys are pretty pissed, aren't they? Only blood and guts around here." I say to myself as I feel a change in the wind and hear a powering up sound. As everything basically screamed danger af me, I activated Vex and awaited the poor fellow that wanted to act. Suddenly, I feel like my whole body is being pulled to the ground. /Magnetise.../

Deciding to stop waiting, I go on the offensive with a spectral scream, freezing everything around me and forcing my enemies into revealing themselves.

As the invisibility wears off, I see what looks like a Loki and a Frost in front of me.

"Mania and Malice. Careful, Tenno. These two are quite well known already and are known to appear everywhere." the Lotus says quickly.

"Oh they'll be everywhere after I'm done with them, alright."

 _Recommended battle music: "Take Me Now" by Extreme Music_

 _Drake vs Mania & Malice_

"Come on, kiddos. Show me what you can do." I say and dare them to come.

As I await my enemies, I see them look at each other and then nod, instantly raising alarms in my head and making me attempt to dodge whatever is coming. Unfortunately, I couldn't predict Mania teleporting me, so I look around confused once I get switched and then struck in the head with a powerful hammer blow from Malice. Flipping back with a blurry vision from the blow, I try to regain my composition but I get teleported again and hit by both of them this time, nearly making me fall. As they break my shields, my eyes instantly flare up and every side effect goes away. As I'm about to be stabbed again, I grab Malice's hammer, hit Mania with full force and swing at the first one again, pushing him back.

Feeling nearly completely overtaken by Fury and feeling as if some other presence is trying to take over me, I swing at Mania which dodges, but my hammer continues and hits Malice, blowing him away and seeing parts of his armor drop with the impact.

"Brother!" shouts the other acolyte. "You'll pay for this!" he says and rushes to me in a zig-zag pattern.

"Gladly, just come here." I respond then jump towards the last assassin as he dodges. Fortunately, I grab his leg and force him to the ground, then apply pressure on it until I hear a cracking noise and a shout from my enemy below me. "Justice demands your death." I say and prepare to curbstomp him, before I realise what I'm doing and stop, shaking my head once, trying to get rid of my fury. _You know you want to kill them…_ I hear a voice in my head. _No shit, of course I do, but this isn't justice. They can repent for their wrongdoings._ I respond.

Punching my opponent's helmet, it cracks and then I rip it off, revealing an Incubus Helmet. Going back to Malice, I rip his helmet off too, forcing him back to his normal state with a Himavat Helmet.

Coming off my adrenaline rush, I feel very heavy on my feet and tired so I start meditating for a few hours while waiting for the two to wake up.

 _Later that day, normal PoV_

"Ughh… My head… Shit… did I get rhino stomped or something?" mutters Malice.

"Yeah? At least your leg doesn't feel broken in more places than you knew possible." says Mania.

"Still, what happened? I don't feel evil and stuff anymore."

"Morning, sleeping beauties. Had a good sleep?" says Drake as he is meditating with his head down.

"Who the fuck are you? What have you do- Oh. You're the dude that kicked our asses." said Mania.

"Where? Who? Can't even see because of this headache. Is it the dragon guy?" asks his accomplice.

"Look, if you want to kill us, just do it. Torturing us won't get you any informa-" the first one tries to say but gets interrupted.

"If I wanted to kill you, I would've done that a long time ago. Torturing isn't honourable." Drake responds calmly.

"Alright then…. So what do you want? Why are you still here?" asks Mania.

"First, you needed someone to get you out of here before some corpus finds you and turns you into grofit. Second, I'm not carrying you to my ship, you're walking there. Third, I want to help you."

"Right, you lost me after first." says the Frost.

"/sigh/ You both have amazing potential, but you've strayed from the light and didn't coordonate well enough after your first trick didn't work out as expected."

"Well we don't really have a choice then, I guess. Also, how do you expect me to walk?" questions Mania.

"I don't. It should be funny though. That ought to teach you something about your annoying teleports."

"Dick." mutters the Loki.

"So what's your name if you're basically going to tutor us? Anything we need to know? Also what's that warframe?" inquires Malice

"Drake. I'm guessing you guys are from Kronia, I'm the new leader there and in Larunda. The warframe is an alpha and unique. Yours?" Drake explains with short sentences.

"I'm Mike and the Frost is Matt, but people knew us as Mania and Malice."

On the way to the Liset, they discussed some more about each other's lives so far.

"By the way, you two wouldn't know a place from where to get flowers or chocolate, would you?"

"Sounds like someone got in trouble with his girl." says Mania cheekily.

More or less ignoring the remark, Drake trips Mania and gets him to fall because of his bad leg, but helps him back up afterwards, getting a chuckle from his brother.

 _Larunda Relay, Mercury_

"You two go to the Mission Opperations room and wait for me there, I gotta go get some others." says Drake as he strolls to the infirmary.

"Sir? You need my medical help?" says one of the healers as he reaches the medical place.

"No, thank you. I wanted to check in on the two I brought here before, the Atlas and the Mesa."

"This way. They made quite the fast recovery."

Once they reached the room, Drake entered and saw the two in a hug, getting their attention. "Uh, should I…" he says and points back to the door.

"No, no! We actually wanted to search for you but couldn't find you." says Cassidy.

"Thank you so much for saving both of us and especially my girlfriend. Long story short, my Cephalon got infested, turned into what I guess you fought and basically kept me there in a unconscious state. My name is Scott." the Atlas says and stretches his hand for a handshake.

"Drake. Glad to meet you." the other responds and gives into the gesture.

"While he was out cold, I tried to contact him and found out why I couldn't when Jordas contacted me. I tried to get to him but Alad V spotted me on an infested ship trying to get intel and used his controlling device on me..." adds Cassidy.

"Yeah.. Sorry again for the little fight. I'm guessing you two don't really have any missions to go on right now?"

"No, not really. Why?" asks Scott.

"I'll discuss this with you in the Mission Operations room, head there and wait for me. I have to go get some others."

 _A few more and I'm done…_ Heading to Simaris' Sanctuary, I call Cassidy and tell her to come to Larunda for a meeting. As he nears the door, he prepares himself mentally in case of anything like last time and goes through, seeing Ivara try her archery skills.

"Hey there sweetie. I rallied up the guys and I wanted to check if you want to be part of the meeting too." says Drake as he approaches her.

"Sure! Anything is more fun than Simaris listening to Simaris."

"I heard that…" says Simaris in the background.

"Let's go then." he concludes.

 _Mission Operations room, Larunda Relay_

Entering the room, Drake could see the 4 people he sent there already talking and getting to know each other.

Getting their attention, he starts addressing them.

"Alright, I don't think any of you know why I brought you here, so I'll be direct. I wanted to ask you to join my clan." he says and looks at them. "You are not forced in any way, shape, or form to join me. The scope of my group is to purify this system and to take down every single enemy that stands in our way. I can also train some of you, or even train each other and learn from each other. Our Dojo will be soon completed and then we'll go and check it out."

"Hell yeah!" shout the 2 brothers.

"That's actually really nice to hear at such times." says Cassidy. "I agree." completes Scott.

"So be it. You also have a few other clan mates, one of them being the amazing person next to me" at which Ivara gives a little wave and receives greetings from them "and a Valkyr that I helped in the same way as you two." the leader says as he points at Matt and Mike.

"Clara? She was our best friend there!" says Mike. "Can't wait to see her again!"

"And you will, once Al finishes up the Dojo. Until then, rest up. I or he will contact each of you. Have a good day." Drake concludes and leaves the room.

"By the way, Rosa. I wanted to ask you something. Once we get the Dojo up, we'll spend nearly all our time there. Are you sure Simaris won't mind?"

"I… don't actually know. I'll check with him." she says uncertain, resting her head on his arm.

"Hey, it's not the end if he won't let you stay, we can figure something out."

"I hope you're right."

 _Orbiter, Space, Drake's PoV_

"Alright… Last ones of the Acolytes then I can take care of other stuff. You know the coords, Ordis. Lead me to them."

 _E Prime, Venus_

As soon as I jump down on the ground, my vision starts going blurry, almost as if… _Rift! Shit._

After I stabilise myself I see the 3 Acolytes, a Limbo, Mesa and Nekros.

"Misery, Torment and Violence. Nice to meet ya'll. Shall we do this the easy way, or the easier way?" I ask and crack my knuckles.

"You are over confident. That will be your downfall." says Violence, the Limbo.

"Easier way it is, then. Well how about you step first, then?" I direct the question at him, but still see Nekros' hand empowering and Mesa's pistols glowing.

 _Drake vs Violence, Torment and Misery_

Not wasting time, I activate Vex and go in for a low sweep on Torment, surprising the three but still missing.

They sorround me and in the matter of seconds, Violence drops the both of them into the rift and they unleash their powers at me. Fleeing from the incoming bullets and spawns, I do a sharp turn towards the Limbo and attempt to strike but he goes into the rift too, as the attacks catch up with me.

"You're gonna play like that? Good thing I already know about your powers." I shout and channel all my energy into my weapons and fists. _Void energy can pass through the rift, if I remember correctly..._

Rushing towards Misery, I slice at him, cutting a good chunk of armor since he didn't expect my attack to hit, then quickly draw a Lex and shoot his knee armor, forcing him on his knees, then jump and hit his helmet mid-air with full force, knocking him out and purifying him.

"One down." I murmur and look at my other two opponents as they circle around me. _Violence is constantly supplying Torment. I mustn't let the awe and shock effect go away_. I decide and switch my aim to the Limbo.

Feinting an attack towards the Mesa acolyte, I continue the swing towards Violence and throw my sword as soon as it aligns towards him, impaling him to the wall. Not wasting time, I run and jump on the handle, then kick his helmet, release the stalker's influence on him and retrieve my sword.

"Last one standing. Just give up and make my job easier, you'll also suffer less pain." I say to Torment.

"I'd rather die than be turned back." she says and draws her pistols again, beginning her rapid fire.

"Wild west mode engaged, then."

Drawing my lexes, I begin to fire accurate and slow shots at my enemy, each hitting a part of her body, with one hitting the head and revealing a crack. "Help!" says the Tennon inside, but gets muffled by the dark aura again. "I will not allow you to convert me to your twisted ways too, heretic!" shouts what sounds like the Stalker mixed with the acolyte, and raises the gun to her chin.

Realising what the Stalker is doing, I instantly rush to the Mesa, but it's too late.

"No, no, no! You fucking monster!" I shout at the now life-less body of the Tenno, as if I can talk to the Stalker. "I'll find you. I'll avenge this Tenno. I'll be your assassin." I whisper calmly, holding the body of the girl in my hands, close my eyes and think of what I'll do next, trying my hardest to revive the Tenno.

"Wh-what are you… Who… Alexa! What did you do to her you fucking criminal!" shouts the Nekros as he wakes up.

"Don't you dare blame me for killing a fellow Tenno. This is the work of your lovely leader, the Stalker. He ordered her to kill herself so that I can't purify her like you two and the rest." I say as the Limbo wakes up too and stares speachless. "Come." I say and get up.

"Wh.. Where?" says the Nekros.

"Larunda. Don't you want to bury her?" I look at him.

"Of course we do… We just can't…" he murmurs and I hear his voice wavering. "She was our sister..."

"I'm sorry for your loss." I say as I turn my back to them and walk slowly forward. "But I bet she wouldn't want her death to be in vain. Will you two help me take down the Stalker? Avenge her?"

"Yes." responds the Limbo. "We will avenge her. He isn't even deserving of death, a punishment even worse awaits him." he continues.

"Just don't let rage consume you. I might not be the best person to talk but trust me, it's for the best. I'm Drake, the leader of Kronia and Larunda. You?"

"I'm Neville." says the Nekros, still a bit shocked. "and this is Lance." he points to Limbo. "We're both from Kronia.."

"Let us head there, then."

 _Kronia Relay, Saturn_

Going through the halls, the guards instantly let me in once they see who I am and what I am carrying. Going over to Jax, he calls in the healers and the Tenno of the Relay gather for the burial. Normally, when a warframe "dies", the Operator is put in a stasis until he is linked to another warframe, but this time the Operator was under the influence of the Stalker and the shot went straight through the head of the warframe, shattering the neural links and the Tenno's brain suffered too much trauma from it. They are put in a sarcophagus and transported to the Relay's morgue, then immortalized into the data base and Sanctuary.

Completing the Ceremony, I invite the two to my clan, bringing up it's numbers and giving the two new purpose.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Lotus. Is there any way I can find the Stalker?" I ask my Guide.

"Only if you make him come out and put a tracker on him, Tenno. He will never fight to the death and he is literally untraceable." she responds.

"How can I make him come out?"

"Defeat important people, generals, commanders, VIP's of the galaxy. The more bosses down, the more he will want to stop you."

"Two birds with one stone. Perfect. Ordis, who is the leader of Saturn?"

"General Sargas'Ruk, Operator." he answers.

"You know what to do." I say and grab a Tigris I just constructed in the foundry.


	10. Chapter 9: The Hunt

**Alright ya'll, this chapter will be mostly fights and a pretty big reveal which will come in handy later. Enjoy!**

 **Italics is for locations, thoughts, etc.**

 _Tethys, Saturn_

"Ooh? A new maggot came out of his hole? I'll make sure to send you back there." shouts Ruk when the Grineer spot me breaking in, but I ignore him and continue on my way, adamant on forcing the Stalker out.

Sliding and jumping, I decide to ignore any Grineer on my way, since their bullets are long ineffective towards my armor. _Dumb clones. At least if they were normal soldiers they would step aside or decide it's not worth fighting._

"You're a new maggot. I've crushed dozens under my feet yet I haven't seen one like you. What flesh lies within that warframe, I wonder?"

Feeling the heat get more and more intense, I know I'm getting close so I activate my powers. Once done, considering hacking would waste time, I break down the control panel opening the door and pry the entrance open with the panel.

"Like the heat, Tenno? You're about to feel even more!" says the Grineer general and smashes his foot in the ground, errupting flames everywhere in the room and creating a circle of fire expanding towards me.

"I'll show you what true heat feels like," I say. "One grade at a time."

Focusing my energy on elemental ward, the fire red I chose for the fight turns even redder, growing the ward tenfold and allowing we easy pasaage through any fire.

"Don't think I'm impressed! There were other maggots that could even control fire, yet I easily outmatched them."

Diving head first into battle, I aim my lexes at both of his eyes and fire. Unfortunately, the bullets just fall off him as if I hit some invisible barrier and the general continues with his charge, punching me with his flamethrower then activating it, blowing me away a few meters.

Feeling my skin get tougher from all the fire burning my shields, I take out my Tigris and check for weak spots on my enemy. _The back? No, it looks armored enough… The chest? Same there… Wait, he has to open that crystal control panel thingy for his flamethrower to work._

In order to bait him into a trap, I taunt him and shoot a few other bullets at him. _Here he comes._

As I feel the time slow down, I duck under his punch, grab the flamethrower, stopping him and doing a full Tigris shot right into the crystals, blowing it up together with his arm.

"You fucking imbecile! Do you know how much that cost? It was worth more than this whole galleon's worth of clones!" he shouts in frustration, and charges me with his other arm.

Watching him close in on slow motion because of my heightened senses, his chest reveals the next set of crystals. Quickly throwing my sword into his chest, it stops him in place just enough for me to close in with my Tigris, shooting at point blank, exploding his chest armor and at the same time, forcing his last reserve, the one on his back, to open up.

"Say hello to your other comrades wherever you go next for me." I tell him.

Kicking the sword further in as Sargas tries to comprehend his situation, it slides into the other crystals and allows me to do another point blank attack, this time with Spectral Scream and completely burning him together with his whole armor. The result is a gruesome shower of bits and blood after the inevitable explosion of his systems.

"One down. You better be marking me on your list, edgelord." I say to noone and sigh.

 _Hades, Pluto_

"Hello there, Tenno. Quite the unexpected visit from you. You might aswell help me test my new weapon then!" says Frohd Bek over the comms. "This is the pinnacle of engineering, Tenno. Precision, Power, Prestige. This is the future." he continues.

"This is history repeating itself. I've heard about this new Corpus proxy. It's called Ambulas, and it's using some kind of processor which makes sure it cannot be defeated by the same kind of moves as before. If this prototype enters mass-production, it will be the Orokin AI catastrophe all over again." explains the Lotus.

Deciding the robot is not worth full-attention, I scout around the base first of all and make sure to collect resources since I'm starting to go low on some of them, thinking of strategies at the same time.

"Come on, seriously? Do you even know how much I waited for a moment like this? Can't you just go get killed by my new robot? I promise i-" Frohd tries to say before I shut off my comms, and enjoy messing around with the now too weak crewmen.

Suddenly, the ground starts to tremble so I finish off all the crewmen with a few bullets and aim my pistols at the first entrance I see. "You lost patience, Bek?" I taunt and open my comms again.

"You insufferable worm. Do you even know how much I spent on designing this robot? You're about to see it first hand." he says and the roof of the base I was in gives out, revealing the Ambulas as it drops down and tries to crush me but I dodge.

"Seriously? Another fuckin' glorified MOA? Do you guys literally never learn?" I ask in exasperation.

"This one is much more different, I assure you!" Bek says.

"Oh really? Did you use that cool new Animo processor? Heard it rocks, man." I say and get closer to the robot.

"Yeah! It's very useful an- Wait what are you doing?!" he asks as I apply a few things to the Ambulas.

"But have you heard of the new C4 charges? I heard they're pretty wild, so I got some from your builders just before."

"What C4- NO! YOU FOOL! THOSE WILL DESTROY EVERYTHI-" Frohd tries to say but gets cut off by a gigantic explosion.

Unfortunately, the explosion was so big that the whole base was turned into rubble and I was blown away quite far. Continuing with my bad luck, I actually hit and land in a rubedo pipe which completely impales my back and goes through my "heart". _Good thing such things aren't as damaging in_ _warframe as in person._ I think and lift myself off, but flinch once I'm on the ground. _Still hurts… Ooh yeah that really hurts._

I put a health pad beneath me and wait for a few seconds on it, seeing the warframe get repaired slowly but surely.

"Analyzing threat… Injured. Preparing barrage." I hear through the smoke and channel more energy in my pelt so it absorbs the apparent incoming damage. I wait a few seconds. Nothing. _Maybe it's brok-_ I try to reason with my mind before everything around me starts getting blown up by rockets.

"Searching… Scanning… Threat still alive. Firing up laser." the Ambulas continues.

"I had my fair share of lasers, thank you very much." I say and quickly lift off the ground. "Thanks for the buff though."

Shooting at the robot, it dodges my bullets and stops to shoot the laser until it realises that I've also thrown my sword, too late though as it hits its barrel and the laser goes off at the same time, creating too much pressure on the barrel and exploding it. Continuing my assault, I go behind the robot and kick it as hard as I can in one of its legs, nearly breaking it and forcing the robot on its knees. Catching the sword as it gets blown away upwards by the explosion, I quickly plunge it into the robot's fanny pack, rendering it completely useless. "Self-destruction phase started. 30…29…28…" the proxy starts counting as I set off the self-destruction mechanism through the console on its back.

"Second one down. Whether you act or not, I still win."

 _Iliad, Phobos_

"You're here to fight The Sergeant, Tenno. He is known to send search teams for Tenno Cryogenic Pods and sell the warframes."

"He must've not heard of Vor or the Salad guy. Whatever, another example for the rest of the world. I'll make sure to make this one more visual, so my target sees him." I say and think of the most convincing ways to have the guy killed. _I feel like putting that Heat damage on my Lexes will definiely help._

"That warframe would look very good on my wall!" he shouts.

At this point, the Corpus Crewmen that near me die just from my Elemental Wards. _Damn, did I become too good or do these guys need an upgrade?_ Basically strolling through the halls, I see The Sergeant becoming more and more agitated. "L-Leave now, and I will spare you." he tries to say but I ignore him and enter the main chamber where he stands with most of the Corpus Crewmen, Ospreys, Bursas and MOAs, with a shaky grip on his gun.

"G-Get him! He is weakened by your other brothers that fought him!" he shouts and encourages the others to start shooting me.

Raising up my ice Armor even more, I jump straight in the middle of them and start spreading ice everywhere with Spectral Scream, then get far enough away and start shooting with my Lexes modded for heat damage straight at the still-lingering cold, creating the blast effect and killing most of the units, other than the Bursas and the injured Sergeant.

Closing in on the stunned Bursas, I rip off the control panel of one and throw it at the other straight in the muzzle, cutting through it and taking both out. "On a wall you said? I think you're much better as a decoration than me." I say and lift him up by the neck then position him to a wall. Freezing his hands and feet together, I make sure to take his helmet off and freeze his head to the wall. "Your head will either get ripped off or you're going to die from suffocation in half a minute. Have a great day." I continue after I'm done, then wait to see if he suffocates, then put 2 bullets in his stomach to confirm the kill. "That should scare the next traffickers more."

"Third down. I hope you're enjoying the show."

 _Orbiter, Space_

"You should probably rest for a bit, Operator… It's not healthy and definitely seems to be taking a toll on you." Ordis says.

"I got this under control, Ordis. If I stop now, he will move his attention to something else, and I ain't letting the asshole kill anyone else." I retort.

"Whatever you say, Ope-Hmm… Curious. There's a very strange and powerful signal coming from Tolstoj, Mercury…"

"Where I killed Vor… Take me there, immediately."

 _Tolstoj, Mercury_

As I touch the ground, I take off in a sprint, feeling more and more dread welling up in me. _Something is NOT right. Definiely… but what?_

Reaching the Arena where I fought Vor, I see a figure strapped to the floor. "Who are you? Why are you here?" I ask cautiously and close in.

But to my utter shock and dismay, it's the only person on this universe that I would do anything for. "No…Nonononono… NO! ROSA!" I fall to my knees by her, try to wake her up, shake her, move her, channel energy into her but nothing works. I look over her body and see a bladed arrow stuck right into her stomach, then turn her head around and see the tip of another one going into her brain. "WHY?!" I shout to nobody and look for anything to do. "WHO DID THIS?! SHOW YOURSELF!" A presence was trying to enter my mind harder and harder, this one giving me an empowering feeling, but I realise something suspicious. I stare intensely at her until I see her appearance start to distort and alarms go through my head.

"I see you liked my surprise…" whispers a voice. "Poor Tenno, thought his love left him all alone on this cruel universe… Don't worry. After I'm done with you and you paid for all the crimes you have committed, she is next, and what you saw will become reality. I'll make sure to make her die in the most painful way possible." it continues.

"Very, bad mistake to try and piss me off. You're playing with something very dangerous." I say, activate all of my buffs and receive an arrow in my back.

 _Drake vs The Stalker, Round 1_

 _Recommended battle music: Nothing More - Go To War_

"Ooh, dragon's got fangs? The worthless leaders and VIPs you have killed were child's play. If you think that makes you good enough to fight me, come at me." he says and appears out of black smoke, pummelling me with kunais to stagger me. "Been a while since I had to do an assassination myself."

"I'm doing one right now!" I shout and jump at the first opportunity I get, trying to surprise him but he teleports out of my way and shoots another arrow at me which connects with my shoulder.

Ripping the arrow off, I try again to attack him but he whips his Scythe out and counters all my bullets and slashes, then goes on the offensive and plunges the Scythe in my leg with a sweep.

Ignoring the pain and using adrenaline as a painkiller, I fake a bullet jump and turn it into a roll straight under him, hitting his knee, forcing him backwards and into a teleport. Taking advantage of the situation, I shoot as many bullets as I can at him, some connecting and shredding his armor while the others just go stray.

"You fool. Do you even know why I assassinate Tennos? Do you even know of my powers?" he says and uses some kind of power which instantly heals him… _Blessing?_ then combines it with a layer of ferrite armor _Now Iron Skin?_ and then throws a burst of energy in the area, lowering my Armor and Shields _Polarize? Don't tell me-_ "You realised yet? Every Tenno I kill, I take the power it possesed. Killing more of the same kind just amplifies them, and I've killed **hundreds** of your kind. I was **created** to destroy your kind, by the great masters themselves, in case you would rebel. I am your Reckoning!" he shouts in the end and powers up Exalted Blade.

 _This is all or nothing, no holding back this time._ I think and use up half of my energy pool on my Vex Armor and Elemental Ward, then channel the rest in my pelt and sword. Seeing the waves from the Exalted Blade approaching, I cut down every single one of them until my opponent is right in front of me. I swipe right, but he parries and swipes downwards, cutting me on my arm as I try to dodge. Going for another swipe, this one a low one, he jumps, does a 180 to gain maximum momentum and hits me straight in my helmet, forcing me a few feet back. _Oohh… I felt that all the way in my brain…_

Not letting me regain my health, he teleports with Fatal Teleport behind me and once again pierces my back with the Scythe, stopping my breath for a few seconds, then launches an assault of swipes and cuts, completely destroying my shields and shredding my armor. Deploying Effigy, it stuns him and starts breathing Ice at him, forcing him back.

 _Drake vs The Stalker, Round 2_

 _Recommended Battle Music: Get Up - All Good Things_

"Arrogance was your downfall. Bet you haven't felt like that in a good while. Don't worry, it will all be over soon." he says. "And next are your friends." Hearing that, my adrenaline levels rise to their maximum so I force myself up through the pain. _I think I live off pure armor and energy at this point. I have to do something before this is all over…_

"You're delaying the inevitable." he says and goes invisible. Fortunately, I hear his steps trying to circle around me, so I quickly trip him, then lift my foot to hit him in the jaw, staggering him. Quickly lifting my sword, I hit him at full force and throw him backwards. He Switch Teleports with me at the last second so that I hit the incoming walls. Preparing for the impact, I recall my Pelt and go through the wall at full force.

Struggling to get up, I hear in my mind a strange voice " _Get up._ " and I instantly feel rejuvenated. Throwing myself back at the Stalker, I forget about any tactics and just unleash every single attack I can think of, with him dodging or parrying most. Gaining ground on him, he Rhino Stomps right below me and throws me off balance, but I stay on my feet, then blinds me with Radial Blind and plunges his Scythe into me until it goes through to the other side, repeating the process 2 more times until the effects go away and I slowly fall to the ground. " _Get. Up._ " I hear once again but I can't move my body. " _You've faced worse than this, Destroyer. Remember the Old War. Remember me."_ the voice continues but my conscience is slowly fading away.

"Good fight. Not good enough. Now you'll pay for your crimes." says the Stalker but I can barely hear him.

" _Fuck it. I'm taking over. You owe me."_ I hear last and everything turns, with my last vision being a blurry Scythe coming down.

 _Normal PoV_

As the Stalker swings one last time towards Drake's head aiming for a decapitation, Chroma flares up in a sheen consisting of all of the different elements and colours, creating a shockwave and throwing his assassin away. As he is lifting himself up, his body starts to shift and a different kind of armor comes on, looking as the old Orokin dragon design **(Dynasty Chroma Skin)**

"Feels good to be able to move again. Too bad I'm stuck in this body, or linked to it." says a distorted version of Drake's voice. "You. Edgy-looking guy. Step forward." it says and motions at the Stalker. Seeing as he won't move, Chroma does a pulling motion that launches the Stalker forward, straight into his fist, putting him in the ground with one hit. "Do I look like I'm joking to you?"

"I will not listen to some corrupted being or whatever you are." the assassin says in defiance but receives another punch, this one leaving him out of air and cracking the ground with him.

"Try again."

"W-What do y- _cough_ -you want?"

"Close enough. Stay away from this Tenno. Stay away from any Tenno that are even remotely close to this one." it says simply.

"Why? Who are you? Why are you helping him? Why are you leaving me alive?"

"None of your business. Try any of the above and I will personally hunt you down."

"You're mad if you think I, the Stalker, am scared of a-" he tries to say but this time Chroma punches him through his chest and taking out his "heart".

"I know who you are, kid. Next is your head." it concludes and with another hand motion, teleports the dying Stalker somewhere else.

Moving towards extraction, it gets in the warframe pod and as the pod turns around, the warframe shifts into the original form.

 **Eyy. Pretty short chapter compared to the others but that's because I aim to do some others until Christmas/New Year and this felt like a good place to stop. The "being" at the end there will be properly introduced in the later chapters, but all that I will say for now is that it is based on some theories I've seen about Chroma's true origins and stuff like that which I felt could work pretty well here. See ya in the next one.**


	11. Chapter 10: Home of the Chosen

**Here's the 11th one! This one will be much more of a calm/comical and romantic chapter than the one before though.**

 **Also, for reference, here are the current recruits in the Chosen Ones clan: Mike (Loki), Matt (Frost), Neville (Nekros), Cassidy (Mesa), Scott (Atlas), Rosa (Ivara), Clara (Valkyr), Lance (Limbo) and Drake (Chroma). There's also Jax (Ash Prime) and Albert (Vauban) as story characters in case you forgot their names.**

 **Italics is for thoughts, locations, special effects and changes in PoV.**

 _Drake's PoV_

 _Beep… Beep… Beep…_

"H-huh?" I say as I get up but realise too late that I'm unable to move, causing a lot of pain to my body.

 _Alright, calm down. Where am I? Looks like a… hospital ward? And I'm in Tenno form…_ I analyze before I get interrupted by a Trinity coming in my room.

"Hello, Sir. I see that you have awakened. I'll answer any questions that you may have." she says while she checks some papers and the heart-beat monitor for any anomalies.

"Alright… How did I get here?" I ask.

"Do you remember where you lost consciousness?"

"I remember a fight… Tolstoj… The Stalker!" I shout and the heart-beat monitor goes wild for a few seconds. "W-what happened? God damn it. I shouldn't have been so reckless and arrogant…"

"No need to worry, Sir. Your Ship Cephalon brought you back to our Relay after the supposed fight."

"Alright… So that means that he… ran away? He definitely wouldn't leave me alive… Maybe something else distracted him? Scared him? Anyway, why am I in my Tenno form?" I continue with the questions and feel a weird pain in my head.

"Apparently, the damage you sustained was so great that some of it damaged your actual body. Your warframe was a mess of… well... everything. It's still being repaired in our med-bay for warframes. It surprised us greatly that you were still alive when you arriv-" The Trinity tries to explain before I hear someone else outside: "Thank you, I'll make sure to not excite him too much." it says and I instantly recognise it as Rosa's and the Trinity nurse winks at me, leaving the room and then entering Rosa in Tenno form.

"Oh my God… Drake!" she shouts and jumps on the bed, hugging me to literal death.

"Rosa, o-oh, that hurts, li-literally everything hurts." I try to say but still hug her.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" she shouts again and this time places herself at my side. "Where were you? Why? How?"

"I…" I try to say but feel… ashamed. _I got what I deserved for being dumb and trying to hunt down someone that killed people like me for fun, running only on rage and arrogance. I hear in my mind but dismiss the thought._ "I fought the Stalker. I couldn't let him keep killing our fellow Tennos without any kind of punishment. Turns out, for the first time since I came back, I was outmatched…" _Damn.. I can't help but feel so weak and discouraged. What if this weakened me too much? What if every single leader from now on will easily destroy me?_

"Drake… Why do you always need to be so… good? You can't possibly save everyone. You can't defeat everyone." Rosa starts, reprimading me as if I'm a child that was caught doing something bad. "But you can conquer this galaxy, even by yourself. I know what I just said is a contradiction, but remember what we were taught: Strength doesn't come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming what you thought you couldn't." she concludes and leaves me speachless.

"I… I've never been more in love.." I say looking into her blue, vast eyes.

"W-What? Why did yo- Nevermind. You're a dork." she says and hides her face, making me laugh and feeling better.

"Thank you." I say and kiss her cheek.

"What happened to the Stalker though?" asks Rosa.

"I honestly don't know. All I remember was being nearly dead and then that's it." I explain, after which I get a weird feeling in my mind, almost as if someone else is trying to get in it…

"Hmm… I wonder what distracted him… or scared him."

"Whatever it is, I'm grateful it did. Also, you do realise I ain't gonna sit here all day, right?" I say.

"But the nurses said-"

"The nurses said that I'll have to stay till I feel better, and I'm already better!"

"Oh really? Then stand on your feet, hotshot." Rosa tells me sceptically.

Being adamant on proving her that I'm much better, I lift myself off the bed, then stand on my feet. _This hurts more than I can even begin to describe but I'll die before I admit I can't even move!_

"Yeaaah… No. I'm not biting that. You'll stay here. Don't you dare try to leave, I told the nurse to tell me if you go away and remember, I'm a professional hunter." she says and makes a cute yet proud face.

"Alright, alright, I'll stay... Did you know I love you?" I try again.

"And I love you too, which is why you'll stay here. Now get some sleep, you deserve it either way." Rosa concludes and gets out of the bed, blows me a kiss and leaves.

 _3 hours later_

"Alright, mister Drake. The paper here says that you should rest for at least 4 more d-" says a nurse before she realises I'm gone. "…ays."

Moving towards the central hub of the Relay, I decide to visit Teshin, so I climb the steps with great difficulty to the peak of his hill. _Now that I think about it, his training offer could come in handy._

"I see that it took a near-death experience for you to come to your senses." says Teshin once he sees me. "Better late than never. Welcome to my dojo, child. I'll teach you everything I possibly could, and what I cannot, you'll learn through combat." he continues and motions to a few Tennos sparring.

"Where do I begin?"

 _E Prime, Earth_

"Are you sure you're up for this, Operator?" asks Ordis over the comms.

"Yeah, yeah. The whole forest should be empty considering I exterminated everyone here last time. And Teshin will help me if need-be… I hope." I respond. "Was my warframe always this heavy slow?"

"I'll be prepared to call Rosa in case you pass out, Operator." says Ordis jokingly.

"Very funny. She'd skin me alive considering she probably thinks I'm still in the medical ward."

 _In the medical ward, Larunda_

"Heeey Drakey, I brought you some go-" says Rosa before she drops her food tray "God damn it!" and runs back.

 _Back on E Prime_

After what felt like hours of walking, we finally end our trek. "Phase One. This is the first step." begins Teshin and expertly cuts a tree into pieces, putting a log in front of me. "Punch this." he says.

"That's a log." I say uncertain.

"Punch it."

"You know, wood is more resilient than bones…"

"Punch it!" he shouts and I give it my best shot, leaving a serious dent into the log but feeling my hand completely burn. "Good. All these years haven't made you go completely weak. Tenno aren't simple humans, you know. The humans, or Orokin, couldn't do that without years of practice or breaking their hand." he continues but I'm holding my fist and trying to reduce the pain which is going through my whole body.

"What's next? A boulder?" I say through clenched teeth.

"Not yet."

"Yet?!"

"Moving on, here is the second step. How many acrobatic moves do you remember?" he asks me.

"Well, I think I can do all of them with my warframe." I respond.

"But what about them without your warframe?"

Preparing for a simple backflip, I get into position and as soon as I attempt the jump, I slip and fall on my back. "Alright. No acrobatic capabilities." he says and looks as if he's noting this down in his mind.

"No capabilities my arse. I just slipped." I try to excuse myself but don't attempt the jump again.

"Third step. Channel your energy into your hand and aim at that tree."

Doing as my trainer says, I channel all my energy and it comes out as a large laser, creating a small explosion once it hits the tree. I look at Teshin and see him nodding.

"I see. Let's get on to the fourth step." he says and gets in a fighting stance. "Make me fall on the ground."

Not bothering to make a comment at that, I move towards him and start with a low sweep, at which he kicks my foot back, throwing me off balance and forcing me on my back.

"Again."

Getting up, I attempt a more calculated approach, faking a jab to the head but switching to the gut. Unfortunately, Teshin doesn't even flinch, as he takes my arm and uses my weight against me, flipping me hard into the ground.

"This is what fighting truly feels like. Do you know why you can't do what you can do in a warframe?" he asks.

"Because the warframe is basically a robot that doesn't feel pain and stamina drain…?"

"No. Because when you're inside your warframe, you're inside your comfort zone. Because you think your warframe can do anything, you attempt it without thinking twice. But you're now in a form which at this point feels unfamiliar to you. If you can master this, fighting with your warframe will become a piece of cake." he explains as he goes in a meditating pose.

"So far, you're best at channeling your energy. Understandable since that bond doesn't simply weaken while you use transference. Second is your power. Since childhood you were taught that raw power wins the fight, but you weren't taught how raw power can be turned against its user. Third is your fighting style. You have good strategy but fail at executing it. Combine this with power, master them, and you'll become undefeatable in melee. Fourth is acrobacy. You have to seriously work on that." concludes Teshin and I take everything into account.

"You won't be always in melee range, so show me your gunplay." he says and throws me my Lexes which feel heavier in my hands. "See those birds? 10 seconds."

Turning the safety off, I aim at the birds and muscle memory kicks in, allowing me to shoot every single one of the birds before they can even escape my sight.

"Excellent. I would test your diplomacy and knowledge too, but I have already seen enough and I know you were the best of the best back in the Orokin days."

"Wait, how do you know that? Why even have this test then?" I ask with a confused expression.

"I have been there. I know of your purpose and skills, but you seem to have forgotten them. That's all I will reveal for now. As for the test, you have seen yourself how rusty you became." But his answer only makes me more suspicious as I narrow my eyes and try to identify him. _Just… who are you, Teshin? I am already 90% sure you're Orokin, but what else? And why would you help me if you are?_

"And in regards to your warframe," he begins suddenly. "You haven't even scratched the surface of its power." he says and eyes it suspiciously and I swear I saw Chroma's eyes light up for a fraction of a second. "Just be careful what power you mess with." he concludes. "Repeat the same process we have done here, balance all of your skills and then meet me at the Relay. I will see that you enter Phase Two."

"Alright. Thank you, Teshin."

 _2 hours later_

"Hey, Ordis… Can you drop me some water or something?" I ask, completely out of breath and exhausted.

"Sure thing, Operator." he responds with a sly tone in his voice but I ignore him. "Here." he continues.

"Cheers." I say and take the can that he… offered… me? Instantly turning around, I see Rosa and her warframe behind her, looking at me with a look on her face that says "seriously?"

"Ordis?" I ask with a minuscule voice.

"Hello, dear." she says and moves closer.

"Hey…" I greet and try to move backwards. "H-How did you-"

"How did I find you? I told you I'm a professional hunter." she continues as I hit a tree and get cornered.

"You know, I was actually kidnapped by Teshin. He really wanted to trai-" I try to say but close my mouth once she gets even closer. "Oh come on, you know I can't just stay in one place!"

"I know, I know." she continues with a smirk and gets so close I can feel her breath on my neck. "What? Are you scared, Drakey?"

 _Oh sweet baby Jesus she's using some kind of witchcraft…_ I think as my mind goes in overload.

"Cat's got your tongue?" Rosa persists and caresses my face, further melting my mind.

"N-No.. G-God damn it, why are you so mischievous?" I ask not expecting an answer.

"Oh, are you that happy to see me?" she giggles and knowing what she is talking about, I get further embarrassed.

"W-What do you want from me? To apologise? Clean your ship?"

"Huh, I thought about something else but sure let's go with those 2."

"W-Wait, I was kidding about the ship cle-" I try to say but instantly get shut down when she looks into my eyes. "Nevermind. I'm sorry that I didn't listen to you…" _I don't regret it though…_

"That will do for now." she says and gets off me. "You're too easy to persuade, love."

"No I'm not!" I speak and realise how childish I sounded. "You're too good at persuading…"

"I know. Now, what are you doing here?"

"Training. What's the point of having this body if it's useless in combat?"

"Didn't expect less. I'm guessing Teshin put you up to this, didn't he?"

"…maybe. Point is, I can't just stand by and get defeated by some edgy guy."

"Whether you're the best or the worst, I'll still love you, you know that?" she says and hugs me.

"I love you too." I kiss her. "…but I'm not done here yet."

"Alright, alright. Just don't overwork yourself, I like you when you're alive. Also, Ordis, call me in case he faints or something so I have a reason to chastise him."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. Good luck!" she blows me a kiss and gets back "in" the warframe, leaving with her ship.

And so I trained and trained for the next few days, with Rosa coming and keeping me company in her spare time, until I felt much, much more agile and powerful even though I knew that I have so much more work to do. In the last day I got a message from Al about the Dojo, so I left the training place in my warframe and went to the given coordinates.

 _TCO Dojo, Unknown_

"Damn, that looks beautiful." I say as Ordis closes in on the Dojo. "I can already see like 5 floors being incorporated into the station."

As Ordis parks the ship in the Dojo, I jump out of the warframe slot and see the guys already here, talking about the Dojo.

"Why are you all out here?" I ask.

"We wanted to wait for ya, boss, so we can all see the inside properly." responds Mike.

"I told them to wait." corrects Rosa with a sigh.

"Don't worry, I didn't believe Mike either way." I said and took Rosa in a one-arm hug. "Let's see our headquarters, shall we?" I suggest and receive a cheer from the others as we go inside.

The first room of the Dojo is an enormous hall, the Grand Hall, I think bigger than even the hub of Larunda or Kronia, with trading posts and vaults placed around every corner in a symmetrical fashion, lots of green plants and trees, tinier statues and even aquariums, with a gigantic dragon from the old tales statue on the mini-bridge in the hall which nearly raises another floor itself.

Going forward, the doors depart and link the hall to a circular room with a big fountain statue in the middle which looks like Excalibur Prime sorrounded by multiple statues of enemies such as the Grineer Lancers. The room gives way to 3 others, all being Grand Halls of different colours (each hall has the one of the main 4 elemental colours, the middle room being a combination of all of them) with an elevator at the end.

"Alright ya'll, split up. Apparently the floor below is for Generators and the like, the basement, the 1st floor is this one, the 2nd floor is for Duel Rooms, Obstacle Courses and Pet Sanctuaries, the 3rd floor is for Laboratories, Relaxation Gardens and… Spas? The 4th floor is for Mission Control, Bedrooms and Conference Rooms." I read off the map on the elevator wall and everyone splits in multiple groups, each going to different floors.

"Let's check out the floors one by one!" says Rosa, apparently quite excited to see the Dojo. "Well, except the basement."

"Agreed." I say and press the 2nd floor button.

As the elevator doors open, I see another grand hall, but this one has a cross extension at the end and the beginning for the elevators, spreading into the 3 main objectives of the floor.

"Let's see the pet sanctuaries first!" shouts Rosa and drags me by the hand.

Going inside the room I get surprised though, as I see Wyvern playing around with some other Kubs, even a few Kavats and Clara. There's food, shelter and water for each of them, even ponds for them to bathe in. As soon as he senses me, he jumps on me and nearly topples me over but I catch him and play with him and Rosa for a little.

Moving on, the Duel Rooms are already occupied by some of the members, namely Mike and Matt. Nothing too special about them, they look like the ones on Kronia except a bit more personalized with our emblem.

The Obstacle Courses are the most impressive though, as they're massive in size and have very difficult-looking obstacles. "A race would be fun at some point, or a tournament." I think out loud.

"I agree. Let's check out the other floors in the mean time!"

Next up, the Laboratories. There's one for every kind of Tech you can encounter in the Origin System, housing all kinds of weapons and sentinels, even warframe designs, pads and Liset technology.

Moving onto the Relaxation Gardens, the moment we step in our breath gets taken away by the amazing design they posses. "Wow…" breathes Rosa. Each of the Gardens is split into multiple kinds of sections and flora, ranging from the serene, nightly and phosphorescent flowers that glow in the dark with a starry simulated sky where we spot Scott and Cassidy, to the happiness inducing bright day sky with light coloured flowers. "You know we're going to spend a lot of time here, right?" asks Rosa and looks into my eyes as if looking for approval.

"You bet. This is breath-taking, nearly as beautiful as my view…" I say and look at her, making her embarrassed.

"Oh shut up, you." she says and takes me to the next room which is the Spas.

Getting inside the room already heats me up. _Guess they weren't designed for warframes.._ I reason, but there is also the special aroma-therapy in the room which definitely stimulates the wrong hormones. "You up for a little bath?" asks Rosa slyly.

"Let's finish the tour first and we'll see." I respond, feeling my mind being overtaken by the scent.

Reaching the final floor, I see most of the members searching for their bedrooms.

The long hallway looks as if it houses at least 50 bedrooms, 25 on each side, again like a Grand Hall except rooms on the sides and the second "floor" is nearly completed.. The first room is obviously mine. I go inside with Rosa and see a king-sized bed, an incorporated kitchen, bathroom, drawers, nightstands, charging stations, med-bays, bookshelves, anything you would wish for in a room, but this is also personalized. There's dragon banners and an armory which looks designed for my warframe and… an Ivara? But I don't say anything and continue analyzing. Also a few target practises. The colours are also changing, probably refering to the passive of Chroma.

Checking out every available room, I see that while they are all personalized, they still have the same devices, which is perfect because to my mind we should all be equal here. As far as personalization goes, all of them have stuff that would best describe their personality, for example Matt has a wintery look to his room and can make it snow, Scott has a few punching bags and even a few dummies, Lance has Rift portals etcetera.

But I realise that Rosa still doesn't have a room, which must mean that Albert forgot about her room or didn't open it yet… _Or he ment her to sleep with me, considering the targets and the other armory…_ "Hmm, you know, you can stay with me… I do have a pretty big bed and it's not like I'm going to use everything for myself…" I suggest.

"I don't know, you do seem to be the perverted kind…" she says and I start trying to defend myself but she continues "But we are already together, I would've probably suggested it even if I had my own room." she says with a grin in her voice. _Albert you genious!_

After the whole bedroom deal is sorted, we check the Conference Room out. The room is pretty damn big, it has a big enough table in the middle which can hold at least 60 people, microphones at each seat, a projector in the middle, a 3D live map of the Origin System, a whiteboard and even a little podium.

Finally, last but not least, we all reach the Mission Control room, which looks just like the ones in Kronia and Larunda, except each teleporter has a banner with the object or being each warframe represents and there are a lot more of them.

"What do you all think about our new home? This looks completely outstanding in my opinion." I ask the rest and they all give shouts of approval. "You can all go and explore wherever you like now. I'll contact Albert." I conclude our little meeting and call him on the holographic phone.

 _Ding, ding, ding_ "Drake? How do you like the new Dojo, my man?" asks Al.

"It's absolutely outstanding. I can't even begin to describe it more than that. I like every single part of it." I say and Rosa agrees.

"Well, it is going to be your new home after all, and you will need some killer HQ if you want to rule the galaxy or whatever conquest plan ya got. But I do agree that I'm pretty good at designing." he responds boastfully.

"I've also sent you some platinum for the hard work, by the way. You accept it or give it to the guys that worked on it, your call. But yeah, that's pretty much it. Just wanted to thank you for the job."

"Don't worry about it, man. Anything for a friend, especially for how much you helped me in our childhood. Also, did you find the… bedrooms.. to your liking?" He asks and motions at Rosa with no subtlety at all.

"I'm not dumb, Al." she responds.

"I know, Rosa." he says while still motioning towards her.

"Yeah, all perfect and according to plan, Al." I give him a thumbs up and he winks.

"Alright you two. I gotta go now, more people are making their clans! It's the next big thing, I'm telling ya. Also, the Winter Holidays are coming! Get to planning cause Larunda is going to be the most festive looking Relay and I need your guys' help to do that. I'll explain the event when you come here. See ya."

"The Winter Holidays? Haven't heard about those in so long…" I think out-loud.

"Ooh, I always loved decorating. Let's see what this is all about!" says Rosa and drags me by hand towards our ships.

 **Whew. I gotta say, these kind of chapters are easier to write than the fight ones. Don't worry about the action, it will come back in full force after I'm done with the holiday specials. Also, I always seriously appreciate any reviews you guys leave! Every favourite or follow lets me know that people still enjoy my story. If you have any kind of suggestions, feel free to say so. See you in the next one.**


	12. Chapter 11: Tennobaum Special

**I'm gonna start this off by saying: This chapter is not in any way important to the lore if my story, so it's smaller and you can skip it if you want, it's more of a Christmas special to take the tension off everyone in the story.**

 **Also, thank all of you for reviews/favs/follows, they mean a lot and let me know people actually enjoy my work, which makes me feel proud of my first story here. I should probably talk about your reviews too in Author's Notes which I'll probably do next chapter.**

 ** _Italics_** **is for places/thoughts/sounds made etc.**

"Hey Al," I shout as we approach him. He seems to be writing on some blueprint. "What'cha working on? Also what's up with the Holiday stuff? It's full-on war in the system in case you forgot."

"This? Oh, nothing." he says nervously, hides the blueprint behind him and changes the subject quickly: "You might or might've not seen this, but our people are starting to lose morale. We've been getting held back by the Grineer especially and the Infested aren't helping either. There are also rumors about a Fomorian being built at a secret location and everyone's anxiety levels are too high."

"Say no more, I see where you're going. So what do you want to do exactly?" I ask.

"Well, to be honest, I don't know. Back in the Orokin days we just used to gift each other stuff and that's it. The Tennobaum, you know?" he shrugs.

"I have a few ideas," begins Rosa. "We could decorate the Relays, for beginners. Also remind people of the holidays, as no doubt they have forgotten with all the stuff going on."

"Yeah, I can see that working. Well there you have it then. Let's get to work." I sigh.

For the next few hours we basically spread around the reminders which led to others also joining us and helping decorate the Relays and at the same time clean them up, offering a much more positive and nice atmosphere. Fortuntely, we struck a deal with Darvo and got from him the decorations and pieces we needed for a pretty cheap price. While the others were decorating though, I stealthily left and made yet another deal with Darvo, this one for a few gifts. "This will cost you a lot, comrade. Are you sure?" asks Darvo once he hears my requests.

"I never cared about currency, Darvo."

"Alright, but first, I'll need a favour from you." he smirks and lays down the information.

Leaving Darvo's room, I walk around the relay to check out the decorations that were put up. Just by doing so, I already feel much better, even though I didn't feel bad before. _This is pretty amazing… Tenno everywhere, talking, drinking together, singing together.../_

" _Ahem_ " I hear behind me and slowly turn around as I remember what we were doing before. "Had a little break?" asks Rosa.

"I, um, needed to do something."

"Oh really, for so long? What was that something?" she asks and gets closer again.

"No, no, you ain't doing that again. Not here, not now!" I say and try to stay my ground but decide against and take off towards my ship, only to be distracted by 2 arrows flying by my head, which quickly become ropes and I get entangled in them and then get dragged off by Rosa as the younger Tenno laugh at me. _Somebody kill me…_

 _Stephano, Uranus_

"My contractor should be here somewhere, Drake. I have seen your rescuing abilities first hand so I trust you to carry out the mission." says Darvo once I hit the floor of the Grineer underwater outpost.

"Remind me, why am I doing this?" I sigh.

"He is a Grineer soldier with a few… flaws which make him disobedient to the Queens. He has proven himself very resourceful and useful to me before."

Strolling through the base, I kill the Grineer in my sight and think of random things going through my mind to save me from boredom.

"I spot a leech!" screeches some kind of Grineer super-soldier. "I am Leekter, the mighty member of the Grustrag Three! Tremble before me, worm!" he continues and does a power jump at me, throwing me off balance.

"Finally, some action." I say and reload my Tigris, then aim and squeeze the trigger at my opponent but he jumps away in time, repeating the same process until he gets closer to me.

"Now you see me!" he shouts again and throws a tube thing at me… _FLASHBANG!_ I shout internally and as I'm about to look away it blows up, deafening and blinding me, "Now you **don't**!" I hear his distorted voice say over the constant annoying sound going on in my head from the flashbang's effects and try to backflip to safety.

Unfortunately, my enemy had different ideas and he swung his Manticore Axe at me, smashing into me at full force and sending me into a wall. _No more rookie mistakes!_

Taking a second to breathe in and out, I throw myself off the ground and straight at my enemy, while at the same time buffing Vex Armor and taking my sword out. I smile when I see him try to dodge but my weapon connects with his block and keeps him in place, overpowering him slowly then bashing him with the pommel. I do a fully charged and channeled Galatine strike, cutting cleanly through his neck and departing his head from the body.

"Tenno scum!" shout a few Grineer squads as they approach my location. _God damn it. I'm not wasting more time._

"You're approaching the holding cells. Be careful or this will not end nicely for the VIP." says the Lotus even though I'm already inside.

Within seconds, the guards are dead and I'm hacking into the cell where my target is supposed to be, revealing a… "Uhh… Greetings?" I say but keep my distance away from what looks like a "troubled" Grineer. He's half the size of a Grineer lancer, has one of the bombs from Seekers attached to his back armor, some kind of… scarf? and an unique Grineer mask.

"Clem!" it says and tries to.. headbutt me?

"Darvo? The fuck did you get me into?" I say with uncertainity.

"I told you he was a little special! He has his flaws but his heart is pure, Tenno. Get him his precious weapons though, he will not leave without them! His name is Clem, by the way."

"Clem, Clem! Dakka."

"Why is he saying his own name? What's dakka?"

"Dakka dakka!"

"Fuck it, let's go. Lead me to your weapons." I say and he takes off, going through the halls infested with Grineer until we reach a room. "Prisoner belongings" says on the door.

"Dakka!" he shouts and grabs 2 Grakatas, one of which he accidentally shoots, then turns towards me but I just wait and stare at him, speachless.

"Get clem!" I hear behind us and Clem takes off towards our extraction point, killing anything in our path as I subconciously follow. "Wait, clem as in them or clem as in Clem?!" I ask nobody in particular while running towards extraction.

 _Larunda Relay, Mercury_

"Thanks again for bringing back my contractor, comrade. I'll have the things you need in no time." says Darvo a bit worried.

"Clem's... uh, special. And don't worry, I trust ya." I reassure him and leave the room, heading for my Liset… until I spot Rosa moving through the crowds of Tenno. I hide behind a pillar and try to act as casual as possible, which turns into me acting completely non-casual.

"Hey, honey." I hear and my heart stops for a second. "Did you just do a mission? I heard you did a pretty dangerous one. Around the holidays, too." she says innocently then starts eyeing my warframe. "Huh, you didn't have a hammer dent here before…"

"Alright, alright. I had to help Darvo with a mission, his Grineer contractor was captured and he needed help getting him back." I give in.

" _sigh_ Come on, Drake. Take a break once in a while." she says and hugs me. "Why did he contact you for the mission, though? We have rescue teams which are veterans in such mission types."

"Well, um, I don't know. I just came along and he needed a favour."

"Favour? In exchange for what?"

"Oh, that reminds me, Albert said he is starting to feel really sick. You used to help me when I was sick before, so you can help him while I do some things!" I speak quickly and basically disappear.

 _The next Terran day, Tennobaum Day_

"Finally a day off… Every Tenno can relax for at least a few hours without being worried that they might be killed or hunted." I say and relax as Ordis directs the ship to the Relay.

 _Larunda Relay, Mercury_

"Damn." I mutter and give a little whistle. The whole Relay was decorated in bright and powerful colours, Tenno were in their Operator form, gifting each other presents and being all happy. I even spot some people from Kronia like Jax or the more distinguished Tenno. /Look who decided to show up./ I think as I look over to another group of Tennos, seeing some Omegas from Orcus, like Titanias, Equinoxes or Octavias with the respective Operators at their sides. I'm not a fan of arrogance and these people have arrogance floating around them. _Not that I'm really one to talk…_

Walking through the crowds, I visit Darvo and check if the preparations are ready. "Just give the go, my friend," he begins "and the presents will pop!"

"Do it in 20 seconds."

"Do what in 20 seconds?" asks all of the sudden Rosa, who somehow got in here. /God damn stealth professionals./

"Come with me and you'll see." I say and lead her outside by hand. We wait for a solid 14 seconds and all of the sudden little cubes which look like the cephalons from conclave modes appear in everyone's hands, which have a dragon decal on them. They instantly open up and random things appear in place, ranging from cosmetic items to mods and rare resources, everything a Tenno could want, eliciting smiles and shouts of wonder from them.

"Wow… That's amazing.. Is that what you've been working on?" asks Rosa with a curious voice.

"Anything for the people. And…" I respond and offer her a necklace made using Oxium and more precious stones found on Earth such as Veridos or Azurite which earns a squeak of happiness from her.

"Well, you need something a bit special too, don't you?" she asks and I turn towards her with a raised eyebrow but she gives me a little present and urges me to open it. Inside, though, is a… thing I can't really figure out?

"I always wanted a… metal thingy?" I say uncertain.

"It's a music module, you dummy. Place it in your warframe's helmet in your arsenal and you'll be able to play any music you want while fighting! Al helped me with the design."

"Oh wow, that's actually amazing. This should work wonders on drowning out the screams. Thank you." I smile and hug her as everyone just seems to have forgotten about the evils in the system. _This marks the new year, the new age of this System. I'll make sure to make it the most spectacular one._

 **Oh if only. From now on, stuff will start to flow with the lore of the game for a bit, but obviously in my way. Still have a long way to go before I even reach the current story elements of the game itself, and I got some made by myself too.**


	13. Chapter 12: Of Crowns and Pawns

**Major spoilers for The War Within questline.**

 **Welp. I kind of went on a writing spree with this one. I might have missed some mistakes or some tenses but all should be good… I hope.**

 **I'll take care of some reviews you guys left here, starting oldest to newest:**

* * *

 **Guest 1** : It's good, great idea and stuff. My only concern is, well, Chroma being TOO good, ya know? Mary Sues arent much fun to read about, so my suggestion is to make Chroma more...human? Is that the right word? He is a literall hunk of metal, so...

In any case, what I'm trying to say is to make him struggle a little more instead of breezing past everyone with ease.

Other than that, I'm liking it so far!

 **Response: Well, here's the thing: Chroma here is supposed to be some kind of legendary warrior, unique. Even a MR1 player, with the most basic of weapons can swipe through hordes of Grineer. Drake is essentially MR20 levsl right now and he will only grow, but so will his enemies. It just doesn't make sense for there to be weak Grineer and level 1k Grineer that look the exact same and for some reason aren't there from the get-go so the Grineer can't be defeated.**

* * *

 **Karystma** :

Now I want to play Chroma

I LOVE this! Great job and Ivara and Chroma are my favourites. Next to Ash, of course.

 **Response: Same here, my man. Chroma was always my favourite warframe even though he's essentially be a godlike for 1 minute Warframe and I find Ivara's design the most intriguing/unique from the females.**

* * *

 **Guest 2** : I for one, can't wait for more Chroma and Ivara. They are both my faves, next to Ash

 **Response: Yeah, I felt like they would make a pretty good pairing. It was either this or Titania/Valkyr, but I have some plans for both of 'em and I found these 2 more cute. Implementing Romance in something like this is a bit risky but meh, it spices things up a little. I still don't know if the Romance should go up a notch or lower.**

* * *

 **Guest 3** : I really like this story i hope u can finish it

 **Response: Cheers! I'll try my hardest but laziness is sometimes too stronq.**

* * *

 **NS120121** : This story is basically like a Veteran cheesing his way through the lower level contents... And I like it.

 **Response: Yeah, that was essentially the idea I started with and Drake kind of is a veteran, he more or less doesn't remember it, though.**

* * *

 **That guy Josh** : So i just found this story and read it entirely, and all i have to say is this: what happens when he finds the BFG- uh i mean the opticor, the one shot of most things. Other than that this is a really awesome story and i cant wait to see where you take it

 **Response: No worries about that. ;) Cheers for the compliments! It's nice to see such things for my first story.**

* * *

 **Rebelblade71** : Hmm it looks interesting. Let's see where this goes.

& So far the action seems nice. Chroma's violent fighting style suits him

& Hehe that corpus proxy dialogue is always amusing. Glad chroma got the Elytron.

 **Response: My aim here is to basically make him what you would call a badass, essentially what you are in the game when you just kill hundreds of enemies without breaking a sweat. Glad you like the dialogue, I try to bring some humour to lighten the mood. The Elytron was basically an instant choice for him, it suits what I'm trying to make him seem like and also the colour schemes match quite a lot.**

* * *

 **Clare Prime of Ultra** : That... was interesting. I admit, I didn't see that coming. I can't wait till the next chapter. What the heck was that took over Drake anyway? The suspense is killing me! :}

 **Response: I based what you saw there taking over Drake on some interesting theories I've read up about the Warframe. You'll find a bit more about that here!**

* * *

 **chaosphoenix123** : Your story was the one that inspire me to make my own Chroma-centric story. Hope you continue this one.

 **Response: Hell yeah, man. I read your story before seeing your review and really liked it! I'm a fan of these kinds of fictions so no wonder there, especially since you have a really nice idea growing. I'll try to continue with this one as long as people read it.**

* * *

 **Rebelblade71** : Laser cutters sure make the greatest Salad. Although I'd love to see how he comes back for the Patient Zero quest.

 **Response: You'll soon find out! Glad to see you're still around here!**

* * *

 **In regards to which side Drake chooses: he will always be Neutral, unlike the other sides fit him morally. As it was mentioned in the story before, his morals are kind of like the ones the Arbiters of Hexis have: justice & truth. Be good when justice demands it but be bad if it demands otherwise.**

 **From here on out, the lore might deviate because of the game's own quests not being done, so I'll have to add my own at some point and create some ways with which to make mine relevant to the game's.**

 **I might also have some mistakes with the Tenses since I'm not used to changing them like that in stories or PoVs!**

 **Italics for thoughts, locations, dreams etc.**

* * *

Shit, this is really cold." I mutter while climbing up the mountain. "Oh, finally. A place where I won't frickin' die." I continue with sarcasm as soon as I find a cave where I can rest which houses a corpse by a campfire. "How did things go from 0 to 100 so fast? Oh, right…"

It started off with a single, simple message from the Lotus: "Tenno, my sentries have gone unresponsive on Lua, I need your help to investigate what happened."

 _4 hours prior to current events, Normal PoV_

 _The Reservoir, Lua_

"This is where Margulis tried to teach all of you how to tame the void within yourselves… Where all Tenno were born…" said the Lotus in a nostalgic-like manner once the connection was established.

"Wait, we were truly born here?" Drake asked her while looking around the place, inspecting the architecture of the Orokin Empire. So many people worked on this, so many resources… just to be reduced to rubble.

"The Orokin tried to rectify their mistakes, you were the only ones saved from the Zariman Ten Zero incident. Mar- Wait. Tenno, I am picking up an unusual signal in the vicinity." she said and he raised his shotgun while slowly moving around step by step, ceasing to make any sounds.

Amongst the rubble he saw a shadowy figure alike to a particular person teleporting from place to place, searching for something. "Is that- Is that Teshin?"

The Lotus spared no time to respond, though and instantly issued orders. "Follow him. He is moving towards the Reservoir."

"Leave, child. This does not concern you." the figure said, confirming Drake's thoughts about his identity.

"You call me child yet for all I know I might have been on this world for longer than you." The Tenno retorted and followed him closely, finally reaching the destination. _A broken transference pod? Huh?_ Before he could ask Teshin what is his business here, he heard from the Conclave leader's comms a female voice saying something along the lines of "bring them to me". "Who the hell was that?" Drake asked and got closer to him with alarms going off in his mind, hands on his weapon.

"The Queens." In the split of a second the blademaster had drawn his Nikana and put it to the Tenno's neck. Unfortunately for him, Drake didn't flinch, feeling his anger rising as the Warframe's scales began rising and hardening. "You think you're safe behind your warframe, Tenno?"

With a quick affirmative answer, Drake raised his hand even faster than the other's Nikana, he grabbed the blade of the sword with his hand, then threw it away while grabbing Teshin by the neck with the other. "I feel pretty confident with it, yeah. Not so tough when you could get killed in any following second now are you, Teshin?"

"Your Warframe will not always be there to defend you, child. Don't get in my way or I will fight you." he said with impressive determination despite the circumstances before teleporting away with his sword and leaving a clone behind to fight his opponent which quickly got subdued.

"Lotus, locate him. Use the signature from his clone I just got for you."

 _Carpo, Jupiter_

"Tenno… if the ones giving Teshin orders truly were the Grineer Queens, I could track them down. Can you imagine the tactical advantage we would have if we knew their location?" asked the Lotus, hope evident in her voice.

"I really hope he is going undercover or something, because otherwise this will end badly."

"Well, he does have a very prideful personality. He could just want to finish them off by himself." she reassured but deep down Drake knew that wasn't the case.

He expected things to go smoothly, but sadly he was wrong yet again. After scouting the base for any trace of Teshin Drake only found another clone which died by his blade yet again. "Trace him."

 _Naga, Sedna_

"An… asteroid formation? Lotus, are you sure about this?" questioned Ordis.

"Yes, Ordis. I am detecting quite the security matrix for some reason, which must mean that someone wants to hide this place. You might want to prepare your Archwing, Tenno."

"Elytron primed and ready for destruction." boomed the Archwing once it set itself on his back courtesy of Ordis sending it down.

"You must disable the security matrix before you can go through. Ordis, is this approach the best one you can do?" continued the Lotus but she was obviously anxious.

"Yes. Outside of this shipping corridor are quite a lot of traps and dangers I won't even begin to count."

The base was very quiet though, to everyone's surprise. Drake easily flew through the corridors and noone was there to stop him, until he got to what looked like a dock for transport ships full of scanners and lasers, thought confirmed by a ship coming through. The Tenno thought quickly and flew below the ship for the first scanner which came from above, then right for the one that came from the left and so on until he infiltrated the hangar where he saw Grineer in red armour patrol, leaving Elytron behind.

"Here's the security matrix, Tenno. Hack into the console and I'll do the rest while you defend." announced the Lotus in Drake's comms as he heard doors opening and closing, Grineer pooling into the room, all aiming their guns at him.

"Tenno skoom!" shouted one of the Grineer which looked like a special kind of Trooper. "On the ground!" accompanied their Field Commander, but the intruder had a different idea in his mind. Off came his shotgun as he gently laid it on the ground and the Grineer let their guards down for a moment. Their last mistake.

Bursting into the air with his Galatine, the Tenno did a full 360 swipe with his sword, cutting through most of the Grineer's armors, obviously tougher than their casual counterparts. Quicker than that though came the counter-attack of the Grineer, obviously more experienced and sharp-eyed, raining on Drake with bullets that were shredding his armor like cheese. "Gut him, for the Queens!"

"AAARGH" shouted the Tenno, eyes of the warframe glowing and scales fully sharpened, Vex Armor fully grown. First Grineer that attempted to hit him again got his hand ripped off and forced through his stomach, the next one having his heart ripped off as his battle companions were shooting at the beast. Woefully for the soldiers, said creature didn't feel a single thing as sheer rage defended him from being aware of the pain until every single one of his enemies were a pool of blood and guts.

"Done! You can procceed now, Tenno."

The effect of Vex Armor was gone and Rejuvenation kicked in for Drake, taking heavy breaths then going through the gate. "Took you long enough. Elytron!"

"Are you seeing this? It must be…" began Drake once he launched with Elytron into the vacuum of space again.

"The Grineer Queens' hideout..." completed the Lotus as the transmission was starting to buffer. The Tenno spotted Fomorian engines attached to the ground of the massive base in the middle of the asteroids.

"So that's why we never detected their base… it was mobile and flying like a spaceship through space. Sneaky bastards."

"Good observation, Tenno. Go back to your ship and wait for Teshin to contact you, the-"

"I'd rather go in there," he interrupted her and ammo-checked his weapons. "For all I know Teshin could've been taken by them or even betrayed us. I won't wait for him to contact me and lose this opportunity. It's time to greet royalty like Tenno do."

 _Kuva Fortress, 1 hour prior to current events_

The approach was very direct. Drake waited for the doors to open as attention fell on him then opened fire on the shocked Grineer which were obviously not expecting guests. "Raise the ala-" tried to say one of them before being shot in the head, at the same time his comrades falling one by one to the Tenno's Aklex. Consequently, lasers from the guarding turrets fell onto him as they released a barrage of rockets, forcing Drake to hurry up and take cover as the explosions maimed anything around them.

He paused at every door, Lexes first in case of Grineer being concealed.

"This must be it. Lotus, I found the Throne Room," he said into the helmet. "Lotus?

"D-ke, g-t o- of th-" he heard back but couldn't put together the sounds. "It- tr-p"

"Drake… get out of…?" he tried to dechiper. "Tr…ap? How-"

"I told you not to come. Now you have ruined us both." the Tenno heard from the middle of the room as it lit up and the Queens appeared at the top of the staircase in some kind of protective Aura Shield, with Teshin at the start of said staircase.

 _He betrayed me… Betrayed…_ Drake said in his mind, fury already building up. "Teshin, I'll tell you this now," he said and took a few steps forward as some big and overweight red Grineer guards stopped his advance and he drew Galatine. "You're either with me, by me or in my fucking way. Do you not realize what these 2 old hags did? By the way, you two, you are a perfect example of why some animals eat their young, damn. What happened with your faces?"

Teshin angled his head downward in resentment. "I fear I cannot help you, Champion. The word of the Queens is law for me."

He then moved towards the royalty and bowed, "I have come as you commanded, my Queens."

"And this-" said the smaller one of the two "is your offering? We needed the orphan child, not it's infested puppet!"

"The child? For what purpose?" asked the Dax soldier.

"To eat it, of course!" maniacally laughed the Queen.

"Hush, worm! Teshin Dax, do not question your lords! Bring me the child. Bring me my Yuvan!"

"ENOUGH!" boomed Drake and channeled his energy into his warframe as the energy lit up the whole room in colours which scared the Queens and forced the guards to backpedal.

"How rude!" said the smaller one again with a scared expression before being interrupted by the apparent commanding Queen. "Oh it's not their fault, worm. Mommy and Daddy weren't around long enough to teach them any manners." she continued with a mocking childish tone. "We will have to."

"Are you talking with your ass or with your face? I honestly can't see the difference." shouted Drake and kicked one of the fat guards into the Queens' barrier, evaporating him and wiping the smile off their faces.

"Kill the unrespectful little leech!" shouted the tallest and oldest of the two. "Bring him to his knees!"

"Release the calming gas! That will keep him under control!" shouted Teshin as gas filled up the room and Drake tried his hardest to fight against it but to no avail, without the drive for battle he couldn't fight at his fullest so he was quickly subdued as Teshin threw a Disk weapon above his head which cut through the transference link, leaving the Warframe limp.

"Ordis! What is this?!"

"A Transf-erence surge, Operator! You're lo-sing your Warframe conn-ection!" said Ordis with obvious buffering.

"You have some idea that you're invincible, don't you?!" shouted the tallest Grineer royalty as she lifted up the limp Warframe with some kind of powers from her hand. "Nestled away in that mad Cephalon's crib!- but you're mine now. For you see, child, we concieved of these ugly, metal cysts!"

"Oper-rator, cut the link!" cried Ordis.

"I-I can't! I'm trying!"

"We gave you your precious gifts. So now, just like we gave them, we'll take them all away!" the Queen continued as she brought up a staff which sprouted tentacles that embedded themselves into the Warframe's helmet, seeming to go all the way to Drake's true form.

"CUT THE LINK! Transference overload in 5… 4… 3… 2…" Ordis kept struggling and shouting at Drake and as the Transference surge was about to hit 1, he succeeded in cutting the link even though it forced him to black out.

 _Drake's dreamscape, 1 hour prior to current events_

 _"The nerve on those Orokin…" heard Drake in his mind as he walked around in a pitch dark place. The voice was booming around the vacuum of his dream, a hoarse and deep voice. Just from said voice he realised the speaker must be enormous. "He better know what he is doing. Drake. You've been through much, much worse than this."_

 _"Huh? Who are you? Where are you?" asked Drake while wondering through the void._

 _"Ah... They erased that much of your memories? More or less understandable." he heard again, this time the sound coming from his front. "Maybe a little facial recognition might help you."_

 _Instantaneously as the sentence ended, a beast of colossal size appeared in the darkness as the place seemed to have lit up. They were in some kind of Orokin place, that was for sure. "Holy shit…" muttered Drake. The beast had a long body, looking organic yet… mechanical at the same time. The body started with a long tail-like part which looked like it could wipe bases off the face of planets. The body got fatter around the stomach as it seemed to be the only place not as armoured as the rest. Surprisingly though, instead of arms or another pair of feet, the gargantuan sported a set of wings that had the same treatment as the rest of the body, big enough to create hurricanes. But the head… Just the eyes of it, yellow as gold with kavat-like pupils were enough to give you chills, with a snout and horns pertruding from the back of it's head. Yet it looked… machine-like... so… Sentient…_

 _"I see that wasn't enough. They will come back with time. Kind of disappointed though, Drake."_

 _"Wait… are you a dragon? Like, an actual dragon from the fairytales? Or a… Sentient?" the Tenno asked with utter admiration as he kneeled and looked at the beast._

 _"Hahahaha." laughed the "dragon". "Not close, but not far off either. We do not have a lot of time to discuss, the state Teshin put you in is starting to take over. Trust the old man, he knows what he is doing, even if it may not seem like it right now. Hunhow has already started his plans, that should be your main focus. Go now, we shall meet again." it finished and with one massive swipe of wings Drake was forced to wake up._

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Great job, Ordis… when Drake needed you most…"

"Shut up, Ordis." moaned the Tenno as he struggled to get up.

"Operator? You're alive! I do not know what happened! Please, I am not worthy of you, command me to start the self-destruction sequence, I'll start it for you! Self-destruct commencing in 5… 4… 3…"

"Stop… Ordis for fuck's sake… What's with the music?" Drake asked after he got up all dizzy, looking around the Transference room.

"Isn't it great? I can le-" the Cephalon began happily before being interrupted.

"No, shut it off. Get Transference up and running again, I gotta take care of my Warframe…"

"I've been trying. You may need to do your uh… Tenno thing again. Re-energize it with your uh… Void stuff!"

"Yeah, yeah.." murmured the Tenno and aimed his hand above the Transference seat where Void energy flows, the other holding his head but nothing happened, even as the laser came out of his hand and enveloped the seat. "I-I can't? It's gone…"

"What? Are you sure? How will you command your Warframe if your- Conditions satisfied. Engaging Purge Precept." began the Cephalon as the whole room lit in red colours and his voice deepened with the Liset's sentinels coming out and shooting at Drake as he was dodging them.

"Purge? Purge what?! Ordis, what the hell!" he shouted before he got shot in his shoulder by one of the Sentinels.

"You no longer posses Transference. You no longer command the Warframes. You no longer are the Operator. You must be purged from this-" Ordis continued. "I'm sorry non-Operator, but Ordis must now decompress the ship. Ordis cannot keep missing like this! Please get out of here alive, before I purge you! Quickly, get to the navigation console so I can detach the Landing Craft before anything bad happens!"

Drake quickly shook his head and took off towards the console, avoiding hot steam and killer sentinels that were trying to prevent him from reaching the Landing Craft. As soon as he got through, he punched in random coordinates somewhere on Earth and Ordis launched the Liset at full speed, letting him give a long sigh. "Where do I even begin…"

 _The Mountain Pass, Earth_

Upon reaching what looked the beginning of a mountain full of snow, Drake was ejected out of the Landing Craft but he landed on his feet. "You gotta be kidding me." be said, voice trembling at the cold temperatures but began his trek either way, going up the mountain.

 _Current time, Drake's PoV_

"I should take lessons from Clara about controlling myself…" I mutter and look through the cave's visible space before kneeling by the dead corpse and looking at it. I lift it's head and look at the burns on it's former face. "What happened to you, though?"

"He gave up." said a voice behind me and I got into a fighting position.

"Seriously, Teshin? The Queens? I could've killed you on the Moon." I ask and give him a disappointed look.

"Do not try me, Tenno. I told you that your Warframe won't be there forever to defend you." he said and raised his right arm with the same disk weapon in his hand. "I told you not to follow me and now you're stuck here with the Queens burrowing in. Now I must undo what Margulis did. To open the gates… and make you suffer." Teshin finishes and the disk throws me back through some gates that open the cave leading deeper then instantly closes them, trapping me inside.

"Fantastic. How about a Fomorian? That would wrap things up quite nicely for me." I mutter in annoyance and continue on my way, careful with my steps. The cave would be completely dark if not for fires lighting it up from place to place. Moving on, I see a giant statue in the middle of an area, seemingly floating.

"The Ayatan Sculptures. They are perpetually in motion, monuments of the continuity of the Orokin. But this one is halted and aging, needing you, as the Queens do. Will you give in to them? Or will you face the coil?" I hear Teshin talk as if he's in my mind.

"…needing me…" I whisper as I think then aim my hands at the ice stalactites which block the Ayatan Sculpture, letting out a stream of Void Energy at them and crumbling them. "Argh…" I clutch my head from the pain of using the energy without Transference working, then aim again at the middle bulb inside the Structure. I take a deep breath and let out my energy on it, forcing myself until I see it move for a little. Unfortunately, the toll was too high on my body as I fall to my knees clutching my head, but one of them slips and I fall below the Structure.

"Ugh… I… remember…" I whisper in my unconscious state on the floor of the cave.

"Mother takes your hand and tells you there's been an accident" I hear a deep, distorted female voice in my head say. "But don't worry, angel, you're safe with me." says another, a higher pitched one. "Her eyes are distant, unfocused…" continues the deeper one.

"She's lying…" I murmur and instantly wake up. "The hell…?"

As I put my hands down and lift myself up, I try taking a step but realise there's some kind of… bone sticking through my leg, nearly reaching the other side. I shake my head and grab onto it with a hand, then pull it out with all my force, holding it in my hand like a shank.

"Be aware, the ravenous Golden Maw…" says Teshin again in my mind and I redirect my vision, looking forward.

"Why can't anything in this Galaxy have stuff like 'fluffy' or 'unharmful' as prefixes…" I whisper and check out the view in front of me. The whole cave from my point forward is full of bones, a full on lake of them. I take a step forward but quickly take it back as the ground starts to shake and something starts moving through the bones with lightning speed. "Yeah, ravenous is actually a good adjective for this thing…"

Limping to the nearest platform that doesn't have bones covering it, I wait for a second before some kind of creature with gold mandibles, a long, slender and mechanical body rises up and tries to bite at the place where I've last been at. I repeat the same process until a gate blocked by boulders is within reach and there aren't any visible bone puddles. "Destroy this barrier and go deeper into your past." Teshin booms.

My eyes light up and I place my hands together, channeling energy into the front of them then release it all as one massive wave, transforming the boulders into crumbs. Passing through the gate, memories flood my mind and I close my eyes as I try to recall them. "The air was… acrid and… still."

"The biomes had been sabotaged. The food stocks dwindled. Paranoia… gripped your father's mind. What was it he said- As he stared into the starless black?" the old voice came back, this time more enthusiastic.

"Something's out there, kiddo, watching us." I remember the voice of my father as the memories end and I resume my trip through the damp cave. "The whole ship went insane…" I continue to recall before I see a big gap in the road. "I can't jump that…" I mutter before Teshin interrupts me, "You exist on the fold between two worlds. The world we know, of blood and steel, and the world that watches and dreams, the Void. Charge across the fold as you once did." and my eyes light up again, as do my feet, so I channel my energy into my body, preparing to propel forward. The second channel instantly teleported me to the other side of the road, completely ignoring the hole in the floor.

After the road lies yet another pool of bones, this time though it doesn't stop me as I charge through it and teleport from place to place like a ghost. I don't stop as I see once again a huge gap in the floor, other side blocked by boulders and an expecting Golden Maw lying in the middle, maw open for any prey, instead I run and at the edge of the small cliff, I teleport forward, breaking through the stone barrier. "Huh." I stop and close my eyes once again, allowing memories to flow through. "I smell.. smoke."

"Fire rages on the lower decks. Blood rages in the fitful light. Night parties roam the ship. But there is singing and laughter and play… for all children have come together." say both of the voices this time, syncing perfectly. "Their minds somehow unbent. You stop for a moment, thinking-" "This is my family now." I interrupt them as the memories stop. "They tore her apart…" I whisper, walking forward to yet another pool of bones, this one much bigger.

"The Queen is nearly through. She knows what you did, giving her resolve. Now, you must master the fold. Walk upon its edge, concealing your movement within the shadows you create." hurries Teshin and I feel my resolve growing yet again.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes, channeling my energy into my whole body. When I open them again, I am completely invisible.

"Shadows I create… Another Teshin metaphor, huh?" I speak, wondering if he can even hear me. I waste no more time though, as I combine invisibility with teleportating in order to breeze through the lake of bones. "Another wall? Alright, what now…" the boulders crumble yet again under the power of my energy.

"Wha… I can.. hear them…" I murmur as if sleeptalking.

"The grownups are howling at the door… drowning mad in the Void ocean but you… you are at ease swimming within the depths!" begins whispering the older one again. "You remember then how it- how the howling stopped- they had broken through."

"I held out hope that we'd be rescued but… They had lost their minds, I didn't blame them. We built a makeshift prison." I said yet held onto my morals. The memory ended.

"Your repressed power has returned, fused with your Tenno abilities, amplifying them." Teshin talks at a lower volume this time, but I can hear… pride… in his voice. "You have outgrown the cradle. Now your Transference is innate. Control these Orokin beasts, and escape this prison!"

I look forward and spot a Golden Maw coming towards me, so I dodge at the last second and force it to come out, before I stick the bone I still had in my hand into its middle section of the mouth, then bashing it at full power and grounding it. "You're mine now!" I shout and take control of the beast completely, seeing through its eyes as if it is a warframe. "Let's get out of here."

Burrowing under the ground, I force the monster to travel at full speed as it swipes through its former kin, then bash with it into a gate blocking access to and from outside the cave. "Alright!" I cheer and reappear in front of the beast after I cut the Transference link, willing to leave the place.

"Know this Tenno, that I am a Dax. The soldier of a lost era, the last of my kind." began Teshin with a sorrowful tone once I left the cave and went further up the mountain. "By Orokin hands we Dax were given great power, great strength… but an even greater weakness- to obey their command. To never defy the Kuva, the Scepter, the symbols of their dominion. No Dax can ever raise steel against an Orokin," he continues and I remember the beast in my dream telling me to trust Teshin, feeling a little bad about my actions towards the warrior now.

Above the surface on what looked like some kind of landing pad lied the gates to an Orokin structure "A Yuvan theater, long abandoned. In ages past, I would've stood guard as the young and exotic were paraded through the mountain pass and marched by the viewing pane. They'd barter here, the Orokin," the story went on as I went through the gates "Withering and coughing- as they prepared for their Continuity."

"She doesn't want me dead, does she?" I speak as I have a little revelation.

"No. The Queen doesn't want to kill you. She wants to become you. To burrow through your mind corrupting it with despair until only she remains."

I look around the place while Teshin talks until I see a big mirror pane. I approach it, but recoil back as I spot the tallest of the two Queens taking over my reflection.

"No crew aboard, only the children… only the parricidal monsters they had become. The endless void, the gazing abyss.. the bottomless ocean of horror… it coiled itself around your tender heart." she said with a mocking tone.

Before she could continue, I raised my hand and let out an even larger laser completely shatter the glass "I controlled it!"

Once destroyed, I'm brought back all the way to Ordis' shouting: "CUT THE LINK! Transference overload in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…"

But this time, my warframe fell down into the water below the throne of the Queens and I'm back in my Orbiter.

"Operator? Is that- is that 'you'?" asks the Cephalon once I exit the Transference seat. "You brain activity flatlined for a moment there… Can you speak? By stars, your mind is destroyed!" Ordis began to panic.

"Argh, shut up, Ordis. I'm fine… just… don't play any music. I need to revise my plans."

"Music? What are you talking about, Operator? The surge must've affected you as well. Try to rest while I begin repairs." he continued before I could say anything else. I waited for a few seconds and thought of battle plans for the follo- "This is odd. The circuits are dead but I'm detecting Transference energy…" the Cephalon interrupts my train of thought. "Coming from… coming from you?!" asks Ordis in amazement as I practice my new learned powers through the ship. "Amazing! How are you doing this? I-I am a little afraid right now. Have you lost your mind?"

"No. But I've lost my Warframe. And I lost Teshin. I'm going back." I speak with determination and ready my mind.

"Haven't you been listening? The Transference system is fried!"

"I don't need it anymore." I conclude and use Transference.

 _Kuva Fortress_

"What did you do, Dax? How did a child reject Continuity?!" shouts the leading Queen and hits Teshin with a stream of lasers. "We hold the Scepter! We command you! We are-" she tries to shout but the whole asteroid shakes and they all grab onto something except Teshin which looks worried.

Suddenly, Chroma bursts from the water, energy glowing brighter than ever, somehow looking even more menacing. I step out of the Warframe using Transference yet again, being out in flesh and bone.

"Sister! The dreamer's come for us!" says the 'worm' Queen as she hides below the Throne.

"Tenno, no! After everything you've endured to escape, why did you come back?" shouts Teshin with great difficulty at me.

"To dish out judgement." I say and don't break eye contact with the Queen. "Also to save you."

"Stupid child! You don't give up, do you? But coming here in the flesh? You're making the biggest mistake! Kill him!" she shouts and all the Kuva Guardians jump at me.

 _Recommended battle music: Adam Jensen - Street Fight_

Time slows down for me as I see my enemies jumping at me. I bash the first guardian, then teleport behind the others. Using invisibility, I climb on the back of the bashed one, then aim both hands at his neck as the lasers cut clean through. "Let's spice things up a little!" I shout and shoot a combined laser at my warframe, powering it up with Void Energy as its eyes glow for a second but I ignore them and get to back to killing. Second of the guards gets another bash, I quickly deliver a flurry of punches to his stomach, thinking back to what Teshin told me about strength and the log, delivering one more which goes through the guard and comes out the other side. I feel myself falling more and more into the joy of killing as guard after guard fall to my feet in grotesque ways, with my warframe completely destroying any that try to fight against it.

"K-Kill him! Defend your Q-Queens!" shouts the remaining Queen as she is getting more and more paniced. "Bring m-me his head!"

Seeing as more of them are coming, I rip off the braids powering up the shield around the Throne with the help of Chroma. "N-No! Stay aw-ay!" she shouts as she starts shooting with lasers from the Scepter at me but my Warframe intercepts them or I teleport away.

As the last braid falls while the Queen is preoccupied with my Warframe, I teleport through her and take the Scepter off her hands. "Got'cha!" I shout and she falls forward like an invertebrate, her hat falling into the water below.

"Dax! What are you waiting for? Get him!" she desperately screams.

Teshin looks at me and I give him a smirk as he puts his hands on his Nikanas. "A chance to kill you. And now I finally have it." he declares as he draws his Nikana. "Shall I, Tenno?"

"Let's make it a team effort, ay?" I chuckle and teleport closer to the Queen, before kicking her off the Throne. I switch back into my Warframe as she gets up and swipe her legs, get under her and then plunge Galatine straight through her while she lets out a soundless scream. Using the force from the sword, I throw her into the air and off the blade "She's all yours, Teshin!" I shout and he jumps up with an evil grin, swinging faster than eyes can see. Once he falls down, there are only parts left to count which remained from the former great Grineer Queen. I pick up the head and transfer it to my Liset.

"The worm diverted every single one of the Grineer Kuva troops and nearby ships to us, quickly, we must leave. You made me proud today, Tenno. I will never be able to repay you for what you did." he bows and I give him a salute.

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Operator, you rescued your warframe! What a relief!" shouts Ordis as my Liset attaches back to the Orbiter.

"A mother wants to shield her child from the evils of the world. Margulis didn't lie to you. She protected you." all of the sudden the Lotus comes on.

"But isn't it better I now the truth? Wouldn't you want to know? Teshin said-" I try to speak but she interrupts.

"Teshin thinks he knows better. Maybe he does? Maybe you needed to know to survive the Queens. But… you are changed now." she tries to say as if the words have to be forced out.

"Pfft. That's what you have to say? That I'm 'changed'?"

"What you did. You didn't have a choice. Drake, you were only just a-"

"Don't make excuses for me." I tell her and conclude the conversation.

"What's this? An Old War beacon? How exciting, Operator. You might want to investigate this! Oh, I'm sorry- did I interrupt anything?" shouted Ordis with excitement at the premise of an Old War relic.

"No, we were just done. Let's go."

 _Mountain Pass, Earth_

"Ah, back here…" I mutter and use my Operator form to climb up again until I reach the Ayatan Structure yet again, but this time I completely power up the relic and it creates a staircase to nearly the top of the mountain which I climb by teleporting.

Once outside, I get blinded for a second by the sunset and look upon a ledge that extends outwards from the mountain, with a figure at the end. _Teshin._ I guess and move forwards until I stand by his side, Scepter in my hand.

"You don't know what to do with it." he assumes as he glances at me then looks at the Scepter.

"Tell me." I say simply.

"Hmm. Some say the Kuva within is the blood of the Orokin Ancestors. And elixir of immortality, of power. Others believe it to be a poison. A corrupting oil that brings madness and evil." he speaks as he looks in the distance, speaking with a heaviness on his heart.

"What do you believe?" I ask and look at the staff.

"I believe them both. But for you, Tenno, perhaps this Kuva is just a symbol. That what you choose to do will define you more than anything." he completes and takes some steps back and leaves as I stand and stare at it, the glimmering sun in the background. I take the Kuva elixir and stare at it for a few seconds before I think what must be done. I grip it with one hand and spill some of it outside, then give the rest of the capsule to Teshin.

"Are you mad at me, kiddo? Did you forget? You owe me. You are nothing without me." a distorted voice sounds in my head and takes control over me for a second, but Teshin stops me quickly by grabbing my arm.

"The world weighs more heavily on you now, Drake. Try not to lose yourself." Teshin says, obviously concerned with what just happened.

"Don't worry, I've handled worse. Now, let's get back to the Relay. I still have the Queen's head and I have a few ideas for it." I deflect his concern and he smirks once he hears me.

 _Larunda Relay, Mercury_

I move through the Relay and spot a few friendly faces around which switch to questioning looks once they see the bag I'm carrying over my shoulder.

"Ladies and gentlemen. Tenno of all kinds, humans and the like. Together, with the help of Teshin-" I boom over the Relay and look at Teshin at which he moves by my side. "We have taken care of one of our biggest problems on this system. I present to all of you-" I look around and put my bag down as everyone watches "the head of the commanding Grineer Queen!" I shout and everyone stays for a second in place, faces full of shock before everyone erupts with cheers and shouts of happiness.

"THOUGH-" I talk louder to silence the Tenno for a second "there is another Queen which ran away before we could finish her too. We know where they hide and we know that the Grineer will be set back by our success! Without Teshin, none of this would've been possible, he is the one that infiltrated their ranks and got me access there! So rejoyce, for the Grineer threat has been diminished!" I shout and the Tenno once again start shouting with glee and even chanting our names as we both get swept up.

The current events are being broadcasted everywhere in the Galaxy with the help of our tech team that Teshin talked with, displaying our success to the other Relays and even to our enemies, appearing to such enemies like Nef Anyo, Vay Hek, Tyl Regor…

Apparently the event is so important for the Tenno that there are drinks and foods for everyone, with them toasting in our honour. Moving away from the crowds, I feel a pair of hands wrap themselves around my chest and I don't need to look as I already know who's there. "Hey, love. How was your day?" I ask Rosa and turn around to envelop her in my arms as I already feel more relaxed and better.

"I should be asking you that, champ. Do you just wake up and go 'Huh, I feel like killing the Grineer Queens right about now'?" she said with a chuckle.

"Who said I sleep?" I asked with a grin and she gave me a small shove.

"Dork. What are your plans now, though?" she asks and goes back in my arms.

"Well… I don't know. The Grineer will be broken for the following days, the last Queen will be hunted to death by Tenno squads too. So I guess I'll see tomorr-"

As I was about to finish my sentence, a Limbo came up to me and interrupted. "Excuse me? Sir Drake?"

I look towards Rosa which shrugs then back to the Limbo. "Just Drake's fine. What brings you here?"

"Their majesties, the King and Queen have, requested an audience with you, if it would be possible. Tomorrow, in the Orcus Relay, Pluto. You may bring your significant other." he nodded towards Rosa, concluded with a bow and gave both of us some kind of invitations before disappearing.

"King and Queen? Do we have such things?" I ask confused and look again at Rosa.

"As far as I know, there is a King and a Queen in the Orcus Relay. They've been awake for the longest time out of all the Tenno currently in any Relay and began the idea with constructing the Relays. Oxylus and Aura, an Oberon Prime and a Titania Prime."

"Well, I know what we're doing tomorrow then." I grinned.

"I can't wait to meet them! It's very rare they request to see someone. Don't screw this up." she said with faked anger.

"Me? I would never."

On the way back to my ship I met up with my other clan-mates which just came from the Dojo and I made sure to tell all of them to practice missions together then try to hunt the last Grineer Queen.

 _Let's get ready to meet some royalty_.

* * *

 **Aaaaaand end. I just found out I can put horizontal lines. At least this quest is now out of the way! I can move on to other stuff finally. Felt kind of weird that you don't see anything change with the Grineer in game after their best Queen died so I'll try to make it more realistic. Thanks for reading, ask anything you might not have understood in the comments/reviews and I will try to answer.**


	14. Chapter 13: Ghost Of The Past

**AN: Soo… yeaaah… lemme find an excuse… I basically just had a writer's block and had to focus on studies. Nothing amazing here.**

 **This chapter is based on the Chains of Harrow, quite majorly changed by me, though. I'll also reveal some key components of the story I'm trying to build up from the game's lore.**

 **I might have to create some Warframes myself later on in the story, but we'll see.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Italics is for thoughts/locations/memories.**

 **"Word" in italics is for mind-speech.**

 **Bold is for accentuation and ANs.**

* * *

The crew finally reached Orcus, the furthest and most secure of Tenno relays, where the elite zdwell. The design obviously resembled Orokin architecture, the whole structure being coloured in white & gold with cyan energy lighting up the building.

Inside, they found dozens of prime warframes and even Omega warframes, all socializing with each other. There were a few glances spared towards Drake and Rosa unlike in Larunda and Kronia, which, in Drake's opinion, was a nice change of pace.

The guards of the relay were equipped with different type of warframes, ones which were Tenno-made and were hollowed out inside so they can fit inside, essentially being exo-suits.

The pair moved to the second floor where, unlike the other relays, all of the rooms were finished and you could explore the whole floor. At the end were two huge metal doors with crown signs on them, 2 guards defending it.

"Oh Gee, I wonder whose room is this," said Drake with a sarcastic tone and showed the invitation to the two guards. The two asked Drake and Rosa to 'exit' out of their warframes, then opened the two doors as Rosa was about to comment, inside being the two Tenno royalty, Oxylus and Aura with guards on the sides of the room and a smaller Tenno standing in front of them, the three appearing to be in a heated argument.

The quren had a vibrant green colour for her hair and blue eyes, while the king had short silver hair and brown eyes. The two looked around 25-30 years old, which greatly surprised Drake, as he thought all Tenno are under 20 because of the Second Dream. That just goes to show they've been awake for quite a long time, he guessed.

The child looked very young, around 8-10 years old, having a combination of Oxylus' hair and Aura's eyes.

"No, Orthain, you will not- Oh. Welcome, Sol Dragon and Synthesis Hunter." greeted the queen, Aura, and quickly dispelled the argument with a fake innocent tone. The child stomped off once he realised he is not being paid attention anymore, muttering to himself some gibberish Drake couldn't make out.

"Sol Dragon? That's a new one," said the Tenno and slightly bowed along with Rosa, the girl being a bit embarrassed in front of royalty. "Do not mind me asking- but why have you summoned us?"

The king, Oxylus, looked me up and down for a second, then opened his mouth to speak, "Do you think we haven't heard of your actions? Something as amazing as that must be told in person. We just wanted to make you and your spouse some offers after said storytelling."

 _"I do not like them."_ said the being resting in Drake's mind, the voice ligering for a second on the last word. _Me neither but I'm not about to cause more problems already. If it gets too heated I'll just leave._ thought Drake in order to communicate with the creature.

"I should warn you that there might be quite a bit to tell. Also, Rosa is my girlfriend, not spouse… yet." he explained with a grin and his companion blushed, averting her vision elsewhere.

"Ah, I see. I'll have my servants bring us tea and some snacks in case you require some," the king said with a surprised face, then clicked his fingers and some Tenno around moved out in a hurry.

For the next few hours, the 4 Tenno spoke about the affairs of the system, their plans, Drake's missions and Rosa's contributions, the royalty's coming to power and so on.

"I must ask, was that your child we saw when we came here?" Drake asked the pair which sighed before explaining.

"Yes, he was. His name is Orthain and he is one of the 3 we have," said Aura.

"Huh, so Tenno do have children…" muttered Drake and the two looked in surprise at him.

"It is pretty rare of Tenno to procreate, considering the massive burden it can be during war or the warriors not having time for such things, also age being a problem, as most Tenno were and some are too young, but we don't regret it one bit. They were the best things to happen to us." explained Aura with a smile as the king nodded. The queen turned towards Rosa with a curious expression, "Have you two considered it?"

"N-no!" quickly said Rosa with a deep red blush, prodding the two to chuckle.

"For now," Drake quickly commented with a smirk, Rosa's blush deepening to the point where her face was redder than her hair, then muttered something to herself. "Was that all you needed to know?"

"…yes. It was. If you want, you may go now. Though… we would like to hear about your obviously interesting past before the awakening…" slowly said the queen.

"Not a chance. I don't even remember it myself and I don't think I want to."

"Fair enough. Farewell," said Oxylus and dismissed the two Tenno with a bow from him and Aura.

* * *

 _Orbiter, Space_

While walking around the Orbiter, Drake stopped as Ordis quickly requested permission to replay an emergency transmission from the syndicate Red Veil.

"Rap… tap… tap…" suddenly whispered a voice all around Drake and he drew his weapons as the recording played out.

"Speak to us. We're listening. What is your name?" spoke a female voice, most likely a Red Veil member.

"Mmmm. R…re…r-rell…" the voice continued to whisper, closer to the Tenno this time, as he narrowed his eyes.

"Good, you remember. We want to help you, Rell. Tell us where you are," said the female voice.

"Mmm. Can't do… that… he's listening…"

"Who? Rell, who is listening?"

Drake muttered a few curse words under his breath as his vision turned a little red and a chill went up his spine.

"Rap. Tap. Tap. Rap. Tap," the ghastly voice whispered louder and louder while seemingly approaching Drake's location. "Tap." it finished right behind the Tenno and Drake pressed his finger on the trigger as he turned around instantly, hitting nothing and hearing an inhuman scream from the transmission.

"The message appears to be haunted-halted. It came from a Steel Meridian ship near Earth, strangely enough," briefed Ordis with a tremble in his cephalon voice. "Will you… investigate? I hope not," he whispered the last part to himself.

Drake shook his head then replied, "I must. Time to bring out the rookies and test their mettle."

* * *

 _The Steel Meridian Ship, Earth_

"What the fuck did you just get us in!" shouted Mike, Matt slowly rocking himself back and forth in a corner and Clara checking behind her every few seconds. Drake decided to take some of his clan mates with him on their first real mission, except he forgot a few details about said mission.

"Watch out, the ghosts might hear you if you shout!" Drake falsely warned the Loki at which the Tenno shook, then nodded his head sideways, prodding the Chroma to laugh at his friend's expense, while Clara was looking angrily at the both of them.

She gave Drake a light slap then shook the Frost who was still rocking on the ground. "Would've been nice to tell us what kind of stuff we're getting into, ya dumbass," said the Valkyr.

"Oh come on, don't be puss-" he was about to comment but he saw Clara fold her arms and tap her foot while looking at him. "Nevermind, let's just find out what we can."

The foursome walked around the ship silently, checking every corner for hostiles or clues. Every once in a while, they would hear inhuman screams or shifting as if the whole ship was moving. Every little sound only drove the squad more on edge, the brothers already inching their fingers closer to the triggers.

"Oh boy…" muttered Mike as they stopped in front of what looked like a massacre. Dead bodies of Steel Meridian Grineer troops laying around, bodies bloodied and some not even partly whole. "M-maybe a Grineer squad passed around here? Corpus? Infested?"

"B-blades too refined for Grineer or Infested and no point in the Corpus doing this. Maybe it was the g-ghost…" whispered Matt as he analyzed a few bodies.

Drake sighed and pointed one finger up then swirled, the sign for grouping up. "There is no damned ghost. Ghosts don't even exist! Let's search more."

Fortunately they didn't have to walk for long until they saw another clue. A Red Veil symbol drawn with blood on a wall.

Clara approached the sign and felt around it, then brought some blood close and took out her scanner. "It's from the Steel Meridian guys. But why would Red Veil do this? Aren't they allies?"

"I'm telling you, it's the ghost!" whispered Matt in a shouting fashion. The Frost looked around and his breath caught as their vision blurred for a second.

"Holy children of Zarinman. I need your help. My name is Palladino. I serve the Veil but they have been driven mad. I humbly beg for the protection of you and your vessels," said a female voice identic to the one Drake heard in the transmission Ordis played back in the Orbiter. He looked around and saw Matt hugging Mike, both shaking, Clara trying to nibble at her nails but obviously not being able to.

"I couldn't have chosen a worse roster."

"I must return to Iron Wake. Our sacred muse has abandoned the temple, leaving our people in chaos," the lady said, appearing on the Tenno's comms.

"Guys, if Red Veil is in chaos we have to do something. Let's get Palladino to Iron Wake safely," slowly spoke Drake to calm his team down once they realised the person they are speaking with is on their side.

"Fuck me, I'd rather fight hundreds of those little yellow Corpus robots than this…" said Clara and moved forward with the others towards Palladino's tracked location.

They soon reached said location which seemed fortified enough, the only attacking points being two ramps going up from the lower deck and the ramp they came up. There were Grineer turrets on each sided, looking ready to be used. Unfortunately, any Red Veil reinforcements they might've had looked dead or passed out on the ground.

"Oh, holy children, I'm thankful for- What is it, Rook? Are they back?!" Palladino asked her animal companion.

"Rap. Tap. Tap..." they heard someone whisper and shadows started coming up the ramps from the darkness. The four Tenno readied their weapons and began shooting down the zombie-like beings which didn't seem to feel any pain whatsoever.

Wave after wave tried to reach Palladino but the Tenno squad was easily overpowering the horde of slow-moving shadows, terminating them in seconds. Once the last shadow fell to the ground, they all breathed out with relief, Clara sitting down and the two brothers high-fiving each other.

"Mission accomplished. Next step, let's head to Iron Wa-" Drake was about to declare but got interrupted by Clara getting up.

"No no no. You're on your own now, Drake. Maybe this'll teach you to properly give information about missions."

Seeing no possible way to convice the three Tenno, Drake slumped his shoulders and sighed. "Alright…"

* * *

 _Iron Wake, Earth_

The Chroma user had never visited Iron Wake before, but he heard about it enough to not be surprised when he would visit it. It resembled a Grineer forest base that was completely taken over and repurposed for allied forces. He paid no mind to the residents' actions except for Clem, which apparently had his own little fort that he roleplayed in.

"Clem!" the Grineer greeted and the Tenno waved back, then moved towards Palladino's headquarters.

"Please leave your vessel at the door," she said as he knocked. Sighing, left his Warframe behind and went through the door, apparently only responding to his true form. There stood the Red Veil VIP. He couldn't really describe her in any way, as a veil covered her face, ironically red. "I am Palladino. Holy speaker of the Veil, like my mother, and hers before. We speak to the other side. To him. Without his focus I pray... I pray he answers."

"Wait, you guys actually believe in-" Drake was about to ask but Palladino began some kine of incantation.

"Righteous Rell - of harrowed stars - of hallowed chains. Speak. For an age you have guarded the divide between Dust and Void," she talked with an eerie tone, making Drake's hairs stand up and mind go in full alert as the fire in the room flickered wildly. "Speak. From withing your everlasting sacred vessel, you've held the lidless eye." the room started shaking as if an earthquake was going on. "Speak!" she shouted and the room instantly calmed down. "Hmm… I cannot reach holy Rell from here. I will need his sacred focus, a relic stolen from the temple. I beg of you to find it and return it here. Only then, will he speak to us."

"Palladino is just inciting fanaticism at this point, I'm not even sure this Rell exists. We have to play her game to find out. Ordis has been tracking Red Veil disturbances which might be the best places to try... Look, Drake…" Lotus suddenly spoke once the Tenno left the room with Palladino, to his surprise.

"I don't care anymore but we don't have time for this." he closed his comms and got to the extraction point.

* * *

 _Hydra, Pluto_

"Good, another haunted empty ship. Amazing…" muttered Drake and braced his shotgun while snooping around the ship while hearing distant creaking.

"We generally prefer more… intimate and empty areas." Palladino told the Tenno with her monotone voice.

"Y'all motherfuckers need ol' Terran Jesus," he said in a low tone, half of his brain trying to reason with Red Veil's logic.

After a few minutes, the first clue was found on a wall, painted in blood. He suffers while you dream." read Drake aloud, then put his hand to his chin and scanned around further. "The second dream?"

"Wait, Palladino, was Rell a Tenno? How-" Lotus began talking but got interrupted.

"He was outed by Margulis," responded Palladino simply and ended the conversation.

Drake strolled further into the ship, spotting multiple blood signs but just ignoring them at this point. The relic is what he is after, not some guy's drawings. Around half-way to the end of the ship, he found a staff stuck in a protective case, blood enveloping said case. He stomped on the case's lock with the warframe's strength, then opened it and grabbed the sceptre. "Relic secured. Heading to extr-"

"Mmm… Why…? That is mine…" Rell spoke again and shadows began forming around Drake as his comms died. He casted Effigy and the shadows got ripped apart by the pelt with ease… until Rell himself appeared to have joined in the fray. The Tenno spared to time as he squeezed the trigger on his shotgun, flicking his aim right at the ghostly presence. Unfortunately, the bullets went through it, the presence draining Drake's life with some kind of laser. He quickly left his Warframe and put down an energy barrier to stop the ray, then fired back with his own, forcing Rell to teleport further away.

"Drake…? Is that you…?" Rell slowly spoke with his ghastly voice.

"…yeah? What's it to you?" the Tenno aimed his shotgun at Rell, finger by the trigger.

"Do you not remember… the training?… the augumentation…?" the ghost of a Tenno walked forward a few steps and Drake lowered his shotgun a bit.

The whole ship was silent, not even creaking metal. Drake wasn't worried though, he felt… safe? _Who is this guy?_

"Training… we all trained, right? What augumentation? Why would that make you different from other Tenno…"

"Mmm. Not that. The special one… the alpha… the mutations…" Rell reappeared behind Drake but the Tenno was too busy thinking, frantically trying to find his memories. Too many ideas were flooding through Drake's mind for him to keep his guard up.

"You're an alpha? No… I thought you were all dead! We were sent to death as far as I remember…"

"Yet you are here… so am I… there are others…"

Drake turned around slowly and looked at the ghost, physical features still observable so he could analyze them. Suddenly, he clutched his head in pain as memories flooded his vision and he had to hold himself by a pillar.

 _"Hey, Drake?" the Tenno heard from his side and he saw a pale-skinned, smiling child around his age. The child had small cut dark hair, seemingly gray and red eyes, a small smile and a pretty normal-looking body appearance. The child seemed to be fidgeting, uneasiness visible in his eyes._

 _"Yeah, Rell? Are you nervous again? Come on, man. You know I'm here to help." answered Drake with a smile._

 _"I know, you're an amazing friend. I wanted to ask you something else, though. What do you think will be this day's exercise?" the sick-looking Rell slowly asked._

 _"I dunno. We're going to ace it either way, as always." the Tenno responded with a shrug and grinned._

 _"You're an inspiration, Drake." laughed Rell, the Tenno's memories fading and reality beginning to settle back in._

"The... fuck?" muttered the Tenno as he regained control over himself, then saw Rell standing with his legs crossed by his staff… the Scourge. "…what happened, Rell? How did it come to all of this? Are you alright?"

"Orokin... the story is too… long... I… am too weak… I shall tell you another time. I need your help, if you will offer it…" the ghost slowly answered as if life was being drained from it, figure visibly fading little by little.

Drake walked by him and 'put' his hand on Rell's shoulder, a hidden grin due to his Warframe. "Are you nervous again?" he chuckled, knowing the response.

The Red Veil idol's eyes widened, head slowly turning to Drake, the Tenno swearing he could see a smile. "You remember…"

"What do you want me to do?" smirked Drake.

* * *

 _Tiwaz, Void_

"Here is where my vessel lay..." Rell appeared by Drake as he landed at the Orokin Void Tower, looking as if reality itself was being distorted around the place. "Normally… I would've asked you to destroy it… grant me eternal peace… but you have shown me that there are reasons to continue..."

Drake ran through the tower until he reached a massive hole going down what looked like dozens of meters. There were infested growths and even dead bodies of Grineer all stuck in the walls of the hole, as if in eternal pain. "Here goes nothing…" he whispered and jumped into the pit.

It was complete darkness during the whole long fall until all of the sudden, the ground began approaching and he was forced into his Tenno form, so he braced for the fall… but nothing hurt. He didn't even touch the ground. It's as if the whole place was stuck in time.

At the end of a new hallway lied a metallic figure, chains all around it, tying it up to a bloody tree. Around the whole room were torches lighting up the place, the chains being pivoted into the ground. "Holy shit…"

Drake quickly got to work and broke the chains with his concentrated laser, shadows trying to swarm him constantly but he lasered through them with ease. "Last one…" said the Tenno to himself and bashed the chain, ripping it off and dematerializing it.

The whole Orokin Tower gravely shook, walls cracking and some collapsing. The Warframe tied up fell down on its knees, then slowly got up. "Rell?"

The Warframe kept approaching Drake, so he adopted a battle position. "Come on…"

The middle of the Warframe became coated in void energy, a sign of Transference. Rell was using Transference. "Drake?" he said as he left his Warframe, 'Harrow', as he used to call it.

"Finally…" said the Tenno with a relieved sigh, then put his arm in for a handshake. Rell smiled and completed the action, then pulled Drake in a hug, tears starting to drop from his eyes. "I got you, man. Let's go home."

* * *

 _TCO Dojo, Space_

"Everyone else must be on missions, I'll help you get settled it and then you'll tell me **everything** , a'ight?" the Chroma user said upon stepping in the hallway with rooms.

He moved around until he saw the closest non-occupied room, then motioned for Rell to move inside and told him everything he would need to know. They were already acting as if they were never separated.

Rell sat down on the bed and Drake brought a chair, rotated it 180 degrees and sat on it.

"Feels so good to be able to speak properly and… feel anything…" chuckled the sickly Tenno together with his friend. "Where shall I begin… alright. Do you remember the special Alpha training and the mutations they tried on us?" asked Rell which surprised Drake, as he could recall none of those events, so he nodded sideways.

"The Orokin took the smartest, hardest working and strongest of us away from the others. This happened after the first Warframes were made. Instead of simply giving us better gear, like they did to Omegas, we were shown all the powers we could have and what we could become, then brought Dax soldiers to train us."

"Obviously, we exceeded expectations so they implemented special genes in our blood. We all had different special abilities outside of our Warframe because of those. For example, you had a dragon collar, loved the idea of using pure endurance against attackers and had a strong sense of justice, like me. The Orokin took all of those things together and combined them in one. The pelt on your back, though, I do not remember…" began the younger Tenno, a smile on his face as he talked, happy to be able to talk with someone close to him.

"Huh, so how did the others react to this?" asked Drake. He remembered some characteristics of Rell's, and the most prominent one was probably the bipolarity he seemed to have, as one moment he looked like a sick and innocent child, the other he was an absolute murdering machine, he felt no pain and no remorse. Even he was scared sometimes of him.

"They didn't know. We were told after the mutations to not tell the others about this, as it would make them jealous. They played us. After that, the Dax soldiers would take us to exotic planets like Pluto, Mercury, even on 'asteroids' like Phobos, testing our mettle and having us massacre civilizations trying to live peacefully. We realised too late, though."

Drake shifted uncomfortably at being reminded of their actions and what the Orokin made them do, but he knew this was child's play compared to what happened next.

"They made us fight Omegas and Betas so they can test our strength compared to them. They told us we left them knocked out. We always left them dead but they told us they were knocked out, Drake. They basically made us mindless super-supersoldiers. Then came the time for us to fight the Sentients. Obviously, we were doing amazing against them, but the tiny Battalysts were nothing compared to the proper Sentients. We were a 20-Tenno strong 'special forces' team back then, so we couldn't even hope to defeat the Sentients by ourselves." Rell's tone turned a bit grim after mentioning the other Tenno, before sighing and beginning again, as Drake was listening like a little child.

"What our Warframes are right now is just their 'turned off' state. They thought that if they release their full potential while only fighting Sentients, they would be safe from any kind of attacks. You later proved them wrong," he said with a smile, eyes unfocused while his mind was replaying memories.

"After coming back from an important Sentient assassination mission aimed at their second-in-command, you managed to turn on your Warframe's 'Dominus' mode, as the Orokin called it, by yourself, but then it transformed into something else. Using the power you had, you single-handedly killed half the generals and their Dax bodyguards of the Orokin Empire. After that, you showed us our mistakes and what they made us do, basically launching a revolution. They were defeated, but then you… disappeared. Just… vanished. Rosa was distraught and Albert sent search parties everywhere after you, but you never showed up, until we were all put in the Second Dream. Or at least, some of us were," the Tenno spoke with pride, his eyes sparkling, but then his tone turned completely bitter.

"Yeah, I was going to ask about that. What happened?"

"As you know, the Second Dream preserved your bodies so they didn't decay and you could easily access your Warframe while being safe. The Orokin had all these pods at the Resevoir so they could watch over Tenno and terminate them if need be. Us, Alphas, had different pods from the normal ones. They destroyed our pods, a few of our fellow Tenno dying in them, others, like me, remaining without them, and then you, since you insisted on having yours near Rosa's and Albert's, were safe from harm.

Drake stared down at his feet, thinking of all the new information that he got. He just learned more about himself and the past than during his little adventures. "I'm sorry, man... Wait, how did you guys survive without pods?"

"We didn't really, the tree you saw with Harrow chained on it was a 'makeshift' Second Dream which I created myself using Harrow's chains, found then by the Red Veil guys so I could lead and inspire them." Rell shrugged and stretched himself on his bed. Slowly but surely, exhaustion took over him and he fell asleep as Drake left the room in silence.

* * *

The Tenno walked over to the Mission Control/Conference room, leaving Chroma in his room. There he began searching through the codex and printing some interesting papers he thought could help him on finding his fellow Tennos lost in space.

"Sightings of a humanoid metallic Infested… could be Noah… legends of a godlike desert guardian… maybe Ian? Even music t-" muttered Drake to himself as the doors to the room slid open and his eyes darted towards the person entering.

"Heeeeey, Drakey!" Rosa smiled and hugged her boyfriend, holding him tight. "Heard about your ghost hunting expedition from Mike and Matt."

The Tenno sighed and hugged her back, putting his chin on her head. "Yeah, met up with a childhood friend, if you remember Rell by any chance. He also has an Alpha Warframe."

"Sounds very familiar… I wasn't very familiar with the Alpha users other than Olivia," she said with a cutesy tone and a finger on her chin. She was unconciously grinding her body on Drake's by moving up and down on her tip toes as she recalled moments from the past, the Tenno getting a bit nervous.

"Yeah… I'm uh… trying to… track them down…" he spoke as he looked in Rosa's perfectly blue eyes and she in his. They slowly brought their heads in and lightly kissed, before deepening the action. Drake requested entry in Rosa's mouth with his tongue, with her eagerly parting it for him. The two fought for dominance without parting until they had no air, so Drake brought the panting girl on the Conference table and continued their make out session there, one of his hands travelling to her breasts as she moaned in his mouth. "Drake…" she whispered with ragged breaths and her hands rubbed his lower part of the suit, before trying to unzip his jumpsuit, Drake doing the same to Rosa.

As the two were about to pull down the zippers, they heard voices approaching from the other side of the door, so they quickly stopped, Drake pretending to look on his papers and Rosa regaining her breath.

In came Neville and Lance, followed by Cassidy and Scott.

"Look, Nev, you gotta tone down the sadism! We nearly failed to extract in time because you had to punch some guy's soul until there was noth- Uh… Did we- did we interrupt something?" said Cassidy once she entered the room, seeing Rosa red faced and trying to stand straight but failing, while Drake was also blushing and pretending not to have heard the question.

"I trust the mission went well? The Razorback won't come back to bite us in the ass?" he asked Scott with the straightest face he could muster. He tried to take his mind off Rosa by analyzing the looks of his comrades, having not really paid attention to such trivialties before. Scott was a 19 year old with nearly the same build as him, only a bit smaller, short, faded oak hair and glasses.

Cassidy was 17, like him and Rosa, as tall as Scott, quite well shaped and had curly medium-sized coffee hair.

Neville was smaller than Cassidy but 18, black, long hair and a moderately muscular build like every Tenno.

Lance was as tall as Drake, if not a bit taller. He was 20 years old and arguably the most mature in their clan. He had white, short hair, a moderate build and a cut scar going horizontally on his nose.

The 4 just stared at Drake as he looked at them, before Cassidy slapped him to 'wake him up'. "Wake up, did you even hear us? The Razorback and the ship deploying it have been destroyed, the leading Corpus Commander neutralized. Here's the report." she said and gave him a file.

"Oh, right. I might be busy for the next days recruiting new members. I trust you guys can take care if some measly Fomorian shows up or the like? Also, we have a new member who also wields an Alpha Warframe, Rell. He is currently sleeping in his room but make sure to welcome him when he wakes up," Drake announced, only thinking with half of his mind while dematerializing the file in his palm, turning it into pixels and introducing it into his Codex. "If there are any problems," he began and threw a communicator with an incorporated hologram projector at Lance who caught it, "Use that and I'll help out. Dismissed."

The four Tenno left the room cheerfully, eager to get their well-deserved rest. As the last one, Cassidy, left the room, she winked at the two and followed the Atlas user, while the other two parted ways.

Rosa immediately moved back to Drake and the two resumed their kissing. The girl began rubbing her tighs together and nibbling at his neck. "I know you want to, Drake…"

"Naughty girl," whispered Drake in Rosa's ear and she smirked. "Not here, though, and now might not be a good time. I might be gone for quite a while, unless you want to come too."

"Is that even a question? Of course I do."

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that."

* * *

 **AN: Yeah, Rell lives here y'all. Just didn't really see a reason for a Warframe user that was basically praised as a god not to be an alpha, which would mean Drake knew the guy, so why have him killed?**

 **I tried to keep the lemony stuff in check so far as I couldn't find a perfect time for it to kick in, but I might aswell spice things up in the meantime.**

 **The 'Dominus' mode I mentioned is essentially going Prime, but Drake can't access it for now.**

 **See ya in the next one.**


	15. Chapter 14: Sands of Time

**AN: Here we go, Sands of Inaros in this chapter.**

 **Y'all seen the Chroma nerf? Goddamn it, DE, why must you do this? They thought nerfing him in game means nerfing him in this story, I'm telling ya.**

 **Also, the new JT Warframe rap was pretty decent if you ask me, reminded me a bit of my story around the first half of it.**

 **Bit of a warning, there's gonna be a full-on lemon around the three quarters mark. Any of ya thst wanted that, you got it. There will probably be more in the future but this'll have to satisfy you.**

* * *

 **Responses to reviews:**

 **lesnoto: i dont know if ur up to more questa but i wonder how would drake react when he sees another chroma in the new strange quest**

 **Response: Well, I don't think I'll do the new strange, as Drake is the only Chroma user, like Rell is the only Harrow user, in my AU, at least. Also, I took inspiration from that quest when Drake fought Rosa near the beginning chapters.**

* * *

 **Silver566: Whens the jackal getting beat**

 **Response: To be honest with you, I completely forgot about that guy as a boss since I didn't have to do that mission for years or months. I guess I'll include it in later on.**

* * *

 **skater551: Good to see you updating again! I love the story and would love to see more!**

 **Response: Well that's just lovely to hear, thank you! I've never written a story like this and definitely not in English, but I'm enjoying it!**

* * *

 **Clare Prime of Ultra: Ha! I asked if you were doing a lemon at all and you nearly did it. Poor Rosa. I can't believe you made Harrow look sickly, I guess it makes sense though. Did you hear about the new update that's coming? The prequel quest made me cry. It's not warframe without the Lotus!**

 **Response: I just did the first lemon here so I hope y'all enjoy it. If not... well, I'll just avoid them. Rosa did get some serious feminine blueballs in the last chapter, though. I always saw Harrow as the crazy dude that would whip himself if he wanted to then go on a murderous spree, so I thought someone like that can't be too healthy. Also, yeah, the Apostasy quest hit the game pretty hard, especially lore-wise. Don't worry, Ballas is gonna get another one tore apart when we get to him!**

* * *

 **Italics for thoughts, actions such as sighing/coughing, talking from unknown source, locations etc.**

 **Bold for important stuff or AN.**

* * *

"Could I get some help, honey?" asked Rosa over the comms while fading in and out of invisibility to kill Grineer Troopers and Arid Lancers which seemed to not end.

The crowd of Grineer started looking around frantically before looking at each other, shooting everywhere they could. Drake activated his Spectral Scream and Elemental Ward using his toxin setup, turning the hostile troops into goop or burning their armors to the point where they die from the contagious toxins emanating from his armour. A few dozen meters behind him was Effigy launching projectiles with acid at any enemies dumb enough to get close.

Not wasting any time, Rosa shot a cloaking arrow at his pelt and him, making them invisible and basically rendering their enemies harmless, then used Artemis' Bow to pierce weaker-armoured individuals into walls.

Soon, the whole area was completely clear save from the corpses lying around, and the two took a little rest by each other. "That cloaking arrow is too good." chuckled Drake and Rosa put her head on his shoulder as they rested on the ground.

"Couldn't have ended well had you not helped me there. You're pretty good at ambushing from behind, aren't you?" seductively said Rosa, climbing in her partner's arms. While it wasn't the 'real life' equivalent of not being in Warframes, the suits still did forward feelings and sensations to the Operator.

"I'll show you my technique some time..." he murmured and she whimpered a little at his deep voice coming from so close to her.

"I don't mean to sound mean, love, but is your friend even alive?" she asked after a little while, remembering their mission.

"Maybe not, but I sure as hell ain't going to give up yet. So far what I've gathered is that he was some kind of guardian for a civilization around sandy places on Mars," responded Drake and slowly got up, offering a hand to his girlfriend which took it gladly. "The article was published by this guy 'Baro Ki'Teer', so I might just go find him to try and figure out more."

* * *

 _Kronia Relay, Saturn_

"Welcome, welcome, Tenno. Baro Ki'Teer has arrived. I shall allow you to look through the exotic items I have brought to you today to look at." shouted a voice around the main Relay hub, with a pretty large crowd around it.

"The hell?" muttered Drake and moved through the crowd with Rosa. "Are you Baro Ki'Teer?" he asked once he reached the middle where a man in a blue suit that covered his eyes and body stood on a pedestal.

"Yes, yes. Everyone wants to kn-" the man began with a bored voice but stopped himself once he saw Drake's appearance with Rosa's. "Ooh, I haven't seen this one before. Who might you be, Tenno?"

"Drake. Leader of the Relay. I'm here to ask you some questions about the Sky Worshipers," he told the trader which stopped smiling upon hearing the last part, then nodded.

* * *

 _Desert Tomb, Mars_

"I'm assuming you read my article about the Sky Worshipers. They were a backwater Mars colony which got eradicated by the Grineer later on. The valuables they left beind became valuable antiques… which is why I am pursuing this Tomb and its secrets," spoke Baro over the comms and the two Tenno moved around the seemingly empty Grineer base, until they reached what looked like a temple made out of sandstone.

Once inside they found a gigantic statue of a Warframe that reached the top of the temple and opened the roof to the sky.

"Inaros... So Ian truly was here," muttered Drake and touched the base of the statue. Obviously it hadn't been disturbed in a very long time.

"Inaros? You know about him?" asked Baro, surprised.

"Yeah, we were part of a special task force back in the Orokin days. Though my memory is in pieces right now, so I do not remember much except for his name and preffered Warframe.

"I see..."

Suddenly, a voice began speaking throughout the temple, shaking the walls and causing dust to fall down.

" _Mommy? Who is the God King Inaros and why do we pray for his salvation?_ " asked a childish voice.

" _Nobody knows how he looks, or what he is, son. When the Golden Skymen came here and abducted our people, he stopped them and granted us freedom,_ " spoke an elderly female voice.

"Make it stop, Tenno," slowly said Baro with anger, apparently hearing the voices speaking just like him and Rosa. "We are not here for this nonsense."

Drake moved forward towards a vessel which appeared to have shapes on three of its sides. "Yes, we are. Ordis, prepare extraction."

* * *

 _Orbiter, Space_

Drake paced around his Transference room together with Rosa as the two studied the newly acquired artifact. The shapes drawn on the sides were vaguely familiar, but why?

"Ah, I might've found a clue, Drake," said Baro after a while. "The most prominent sign is that of a Nox Grineer unit. Maybe if you harvest enough live essence from them, the vase will reveal something?"

The Tenno thought for a few seconds... Had he met a Nox before? He probably did, so he shouldn't worry... Right?

"Ordis, to Sedna. Use your random number generator to pick a base and get us there," spoke Drake and muttered a quick prayer. _RNGesus protect us..._

* * *

 _Adaro, Sedna_

When Drake had thought of Grineer troops, he always thought of armor, which he respected, primitive weaponry, and nigh null level intelligence. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for Noxes.

The Grineer special troops were equipped with thick layered armour, nearly impenetrable unless hit with massive force, mediocre intelligence, and worst of all, their toxin blasters. Their only weakpoint, which in Drake's opinion, was stupidly obvious, was their helmet. Fully made of glass and with some kind of respirator, it was a marksman's heaven.

The first one the two encountered was unneccesarily hard to defeat, as despite Drake's point-blank shotgun shots, the armor just seemed to get scratched by the weapon. Fortunately, while the Tenno was distracting the Grineer, Rosa aimed at the individuals head, arrow penetrating the glass and ripping the Nox's head in half.

With every Nox kill, the vase shook and the symbol's colour grew in intensity, until it finally became a void-like cyan. "Hang in there, man," muttered Drake.

* * *

 _Desert Tomb, Mars_

The Tenno moved in front of the statue representing Inaros and laid down the vase... But nothing was happening. Until they heard screeches coming from behind them.

"Shit, kavats! Careful, Rosa. Invisibility is useless here," said Drake and attempted to shoot the wild beasts, but they moved with amazing agility towards them. The first feline was sucker punched by him, then beheaded the second with a feint into a swing attack from Galatine. Looking behind, he saw the Ivara user seemingly dancing with the cats, gracefully dodging and stabbing back, moving faster than the them. In seconds, they were dead too.

Drake stomped his foot on the ground and raised a barrier of fire around them, scaring the felines off. After a few seconds, a door opened.

" _The God King was once one of the Golden Skymen, too, dear. Fortunately, he could no longer stand the abductions taking place. The one that ended it was the one of a child._ _He slaughtered the capturers of the child and brought him back to the colony. There he decided to ascend watching over the people as their King,_ " the same female narrated, voice livelier.

"The story... could it be true?" whispered Baro to himself in the background, not going unnoticed by Drake. "I'd... I'd advise extracting, Tenno."

* * *

 _Orbiter, Space_

"The next symbol appears to be that of a Corpus Hyena Prototype..." said Baro, disconnected from the events currently taking place.

"You heard the man, Ordis. Neptune, Psamanthe."

* * *

 _Psamanthe, Neptune_

The Hyenas were originally deemed unprofitable, as the costs to mass-produce them were impossible for even the Corpus to cover, so Prototypes were tested against Tenno, to check their combat proficiency. It was rarely a Tenno died in combat, and when they did, they would take hundreds of enemies with them to the grave, so it was quickly deemed a failure.

They couldn't just sell the Prototypes, though, and dismembering them was even more of a hassle. So the Corpus let them guard the popular robotics factory on Psamanthe.

Fortunately for the pair, nothing could survive their teamwork.

Rosa cloaked Drake and herself, then used a noise arrow to distract the pack of 4 stationed. Hearing footsteps, the all turned around but saw nothing, even though the thudding sounds were getting closer.

As the first one charged a fire blast to light up the area in flames, Drake dropkicked it and shot it point-blank in the head, heavily damaging the robot and leaving it paralysed. This, however, forced the Tenno to reveal himself, so he activated his armour and got ready for the attacks.

Meanwhile, Rosa was using her zipline arrows to create a path just above the battlefield, then activated Artemis' Bow.

With expert precision, she fired 9 volleys of arrows within seconds, raining down projectiles like artillery on the unsuspecting foes.

The Tenno on the ground wasted no time to destroy the Hyenas, quickly finding ways to incapacitate them in order to assure they would be easy kills, then took them out one by one. "Amazing job, Rosa!"

"Do I deserve a treat yet?" she asked with a lewd tone.

"How can you still be so horny?" sighed Drake but smiled to himself.

* * *

 _Desert Tomb, Mars_

The two Tenno walked casually towards the Temple, until they spotted a few Grineer troops stationed outside the Temple. They were quietly taken out and bodies disposed of.

"How dare these scum step into this Temple..." quietly said Baro with anger through the comms.

Inside was no sign of Grineer troops, so Drake placed his vase below the statue yet again.

" _After years of peace, after we thought we were safe... The Infested came upon us. Despite all our prayers to him, Inaros didn't help... until... T_ _he remaining surviving colonists were all saved by a massive sandstorm, raised by none other than Inaros himself. But it came with great costs. H_ _e was badly hurt by his actions and on the verge of death, but his body was preserved inside a golden sarcophagus and laid inside the statue of him we raised in his Temple,_ " spoke the mother to her child, the story never having ended.

Drake looked at the statue depicting his friend's Warframe and realised he must be dead, but he shook his head as the ground rumbled beneath his feet. A gigantic stone man-like beast raised from the sand.

The creature was clearly hostile as it threw boulders at the two and even got close to hitting Rosa, which immediately hid. The male Tenno got a boulder straight into his body, cutting off his air and throwing him into a wall. Fortunately, that activated fury just perfectly.

Rosa pretended to jump down on the rock beast, but actually shot a weighted arrow on its neck and then a noise arrow. They served as a distraction until Drake rushed at his foe and shot his shotgun at the kneecaps, downing the beast, then ripped off its head. That did the trick as the stones crumbled into dust and sank into the ground.

"Let's go back to the orb-" began the Tenno but got punched hard in the gut, instantly destroying his Warframe's shield. Apparently the golem had broken into two smaller ones. He flipped backwards to get away from the two.

"Drake! Are you alright?" shouted Rosa worried from above. She charged her Artemis' Bow and shot at the two rock beasts. They attempted to throw boulders at her while she narrowly dodged, but forgot about the other Tenno. He grabbed galatine and spun mid-slide into a slide attack, hitting both of the golems, then swung down on the first one, followed by a kick and then a side slash, cutting the beast in half.

The second one attempted charging from behind, but Rosa shot it in the back of its head with a noise arrow, desorientating it, then focus fired right into the golem's face, downing and defeating it.

* * *

 _Orbiter, Space_

"Let's hurry, Drake. I want to hear the rest of the story and I can't allow the Grineer to take control of the tomb. You need to hunt a single Scrambus Corpus unit," eagerly said Baro as the two got back on the liset, mental exhaustion starting to get them.

* * *

 _Hydron, Pluto_

The pair walked around the base and killed the occasional Corpus workers, not allowing them time to trigger any alarms. Neither had fought a Scrambus unit before, but they were sure it would be 'fun'.

"Hold up. What's that?" asked Drake and pointed at a Corpus turret aimed towards a firing range. The turret had some kind of cannon on it and a blueprint on the table near it.

" **Project 0P71C0R**. A devastating cannon which fires a large and condensed laser beam, cutting through multiple enemies and every metal discovered so far. Use with caution," read Rosa aloud as the Tenno picked up the cannon and held it.

The girl raised an eyebrow under her warframe as she watched him. "Don't tell me you thought I'd just leave it there!" asked her boyfriend and she sighed.

After about half an hour of exploring the base and clearing it, Drake realised it's probably better to leave the alarms on if they want to get hunted, and so the Scrambus finally showed up.

He had a nullifying aura which prevented the two from using certain abilities and high movement at the same time, using some kind of hoverskates.

Drake wasted no time and pointed his new toy at the enemy who was closing in rapidly. He pressed the trigger but nothing happened, then held it and saw a laser charging.

"Primed," said a deep robotic voice coming from the gun and released a blinding laser bigger than the gun itself, firing faster than sound. The recoil moved Drake a few centimeters back, cracking the ground around the laser. It hit the Scrambus before anyone knew what happened and travelled through him, destroying the base's wall.

Drake let the gun fall by his side with a firm grip and his mouth open, while Rosa was wide-eyed. Only the Scrambus' lower half remained, which slowly fell down. Not even blood came out as the laser completely fried everything.

"Holy shit..." muttered the two Tenno in sync and the vase filled up with their enemy's life force. "Are there such things as spirit guns? Cause this is my spirit gun." he chuckled and held it on his shoulder.

"You aren't going to use that in every fight! You could seriously damage a reactor or something in the background!" shouted Rosa with a surprised tone.

"... _sigh_... I'm keeping it though."

* * *

 _Desert Tomb, Mars_

"Hurry, Drake. I caught winds of Grineer sending troops here because they heard of you," pleads Baro with a distressed tone and the Tenno hurries inside and placed the vase.

" _Do not worry for me, Baro. I will be fine. You just stay hidden in there and pray to Inaros, for he will save you,_ " said the motherly voice for probably the last time towards her child. The three could hear gunshots and Grineer shouts.

" _I love you, mother. I know Inaros will save us!_ " the child naively responded and Rosa shifted uncomfortably, hugging Drake's arm as he looked at Baro on the comms as tears were falling down from behind the man's mask but he held a neutral face.

" _You! Monsters! Stay away from our people! We have done no wrong to yo-_ " they heard from the female voice one last time before gunshots went off and everything went silent.

Suddenly, the statue in the middle crumbled slowly, converging with the sand and leaving only a sarcophagus standing upright. The Tenno slowly walked towards it, one hand on his Lex.

The sarcophagus opened and from inside fell a young man. Drake rushed and caught him as he fell, before slowly resting him on the ground. From the other side of the room, where the vases lied, void energy began flowing through them and then through the child as the pair stepped back.

The vases opened and revealed parts of the Inaros Warframe (with the Anubis Helmet), which put themselves back in place.

"...Ian?"

The Tenno slowly got up with difficulty as the two watched him. He wiped his eyes and then scanned the room he was in, until his eyes landed on the two Warframes looking at him. His eyebrows slowly rose as he studied both of them, eyes widening once Drake came out of Chroma and put his hand forward.

Ian weakly smiled, then closed the handshake. "Took you long enough. Never thought I'd see anyone again, let alone you, Drake," he said with a rough voice yet calm.

"Ah, you know I hate sand. It gets everywhere in this thing." laughed Drake and Rosa came forward too. "I don't think you recognise Rosa, but I've definitely told you about her enough."

"Oh yeah, your massive crush. I remember you paying me to-" Ian began with a smirk but got a death stare from Drake and shut up.

"Let's go before you die or something." Drake narrowed his eyes and brought one arm to hold friend.

To their surprise, another ship landed outside the Temple and they quickly equipped their weapons. Though, the real surprise came when they saw Baro stepping in the room, gaze fixated on the Inaros Warframe. He walked up to Ian who scanned him for a second. Baro kneeled before his saviour, which made Ian widen his eyes in surprise and heart stop for a second.

"...Baro? Is... Holy shit..." he muttered and kneeled by the merchant, then weakly hugged him. "I'm so, so sorry for everything. Your mother talked about you so much in the temple and was always so proud of you. I wanted to meet you, but you were a mere toddler..."

The three heard sobbing sounds coming from the famous Baro Ki'teer, which could hardly whisper a "Thank you for everything. All of you." to his hero.

The other two Tenno watched with smiles as the renowned God King soothed the man.

* * *

 _TCO Dojo, Space_

The three walked along the clan's halls as Drake led Ian to his new room, by Rell.

Rosa let her boyfriend talk to his old friends after she whispered, "You know where to find me." and winked, then entered his room.

Ian jokingly whistled and Rell came out of his room, smiling once he saw Drake, then eyes widening as they set on Ian. "How are you, man?" asked the Inaros user and fist bumped the surprised Tenno.

The three talked for what felt like hours, about how they were forced to use an alternative second dream, which for Ian was his sarcophagus, how he was rejected by the Orokin for helping the colony and left on his own to defend them. He nearly died from a great Infested raid, but was quickly saved by the villagers, then preserved in his relic with his Warframe pieced in vases. What caught the attention of the other two, though, was him mentioning another Warframe-like shape through the Infestation which helped him and redirected the wave of plight.

"Where are the other guys from AXI?" asked Ian.

"AXI?" asked Drake confused and Rell nodded sideways.

"Drake's memories of the past are completely gone, with only small bits of it acquired recently. Also, we are the only ones so far that we know of from the program," calmly said the Harrow user. "AXI was the Alpha program, Drake. You were the leader."

The Dragon Tenno coughed a little as he heard the last part. "Leader?!"

"Well, most of us considered you the Leader, but the one set by the Orokin was Hayden," explained Rell.

Ian bid the two good night as Drake tried to think back, then Rell backed in his room too.

* * *

 _Lemon , Head to AN if you don't want to read._

After massaging his forehead and failed to make sense of everything, the Tenno headed back into his own room. As he turned arond after closing the door, though, his mouth remained open and eyes stuck on Rosa's half-naked figure stretched on the bed with a smirk. She only wore black lingerie consisting of a bra and panties.

He slowly walked over to her and climbed above her on the bed, standing on his knees and arms as she slowly moved her hands on his body. "How did you even get those..." he whispered as she brought him in for a kiss.

"The wardrobes have insta-buy, I just ordered them." she grinned. "Why? Don't you like them?"

He slowly moved one of his hands to move her fire red hair from her face then around her slim body, which, in his opinion, was perfect in every way possible. Perfect hourglass figure, visible abs, few cut scars and even one or two very faint bullet marks, but other than that her skin was a clear milky white. In the other departments which took a bit of a longer... examination, she was definitely well endowed. C-cups, round and big cheeks covered by her underwear.

While he was busy admiring it, she moved his suit's zipper down and he was left only in his boxers.

To Rosa's surprise, his body might have just had bigger scars than his Warframe. He had a massive one running from his upper back all the way to lower front, a few bullet-like scars and a burn mark along his right shoulder which could be seen before on his neck. She paid little attention to them as she traced her fingers along them, looking more at his trained body. Every Tenno is muscular due to the movements, trainings and activities they do, but he was even more defined as the Alpha trainings cared little for exhaustion.

Her hand slowly moved down to his boxers and excitedly massaged his growing bulge, as he unhooked her bra and happily uncovered her breasts. He fondled their perfect form as she lightly moaned, then firmly licked and sucked on her nipples, which quickly got her squirming. At this point she was drunk with ecstasy, so Rosa moved his boxers down and let him lay down on the bed as she crawled over him, then admired his length. She couldn't measure it by vision but he knew it was more than enough for her, so she lightly gave it a few licks to feel the taste, before fully taking it in her mouth and going to town on it.

Drake tried to be strong but he couldn't help but groan as his girlfriend sucked on his manhood as if her life depended on it. As she took the whole length in her mouth at once, he nearly gave in but quickly calmed himself and tried to get her off before he came as she smirked. "What's... wrong... Drake?" she asked between breaths.

"You're enjoying this too much..." he whispered.

"I've waited for this for years and years, sweetie," she said with her animalistic grin and took off her panties. "And what you did yesterday just about sent my hormones through the roof."

She didn't allow him any pleasure in applying the same treatment to her shaved womanhood, and quickly positioned herself over him while looking in his eyes with the hottest expression he'd ever seen.

As his tip entered, she bit her lip and supported herself in his chest with her hands, then breathed out and pushed herself down further down his erection, feeling intense pain as everything was new to her.

"Holy shit..." muttered her lover from under her and felt her tighten around him, before she arched her back and cried out in pain mixed with pleasure at the same time, a bit of red dripping around his cock but also other fluids. "Did you just..."

She wheezed and her tighs twitched for a second around him, before she focused back on him. "That hurt... so much... yet it was the best feeling I've ever felt..." she said with a grin, then slowly moved up and down. "I can't believe we're finally doing this..."

Drake's vision started going hazy the more she sped up, and felt an animalistic instinct try to take over him as he suppressed it, but each of Rosa's moans lowered his guard more and more. After a good dozen minutes of delight for the two, he gave in and grabbed Rosa lightly by her neck and body to her surprise and pleasure, then lifted her off him, forced her down on the mattress with her head in the cushions and her ass up. The Tenno positioned himself and rammed inside her, now in full control as the girl let herself be used in whichever way he pleased.

After multiple place switches and the such, Drake finally reached his climax, so he pulled out at the last second and came over Rosa's stomach, which had a goofy grin on her face. She lightly scooped up his seed and tasted it, looking at him while doing so. "We have... to do... this more frequently..." the male Tenno muttered and fell by her side as she continued to massage his body.

"Oh... we definitely... will... I had this long planned..."

* * *

 **AN: Aaaand fin. You're safe here from the NSFW goodness above. Hope the ones that read it enjoyed it.**

 **I kind of like playing off the in-game quests like these, since for some reason even though there are multiple Tenno mentioned, you're the Lotus' main guy. Also, the quest Warframes are often considered gods, like Inaros, Gara or Harrow.**

 **If any of you have 'lore' questions about my slight AU, ask and I'll answer so you can understand some of the bs I might pulling.**

 **I can't wait to get to stuff like Plains of Eidolon or the Venus open-world. I have some ideas for those!**

 **See ya in the next one.**


	16. Chapter 15: Credit is King

**AN: Well... First of all I gotta excuse myself for not posting in a while. Got burned out on writing, every time I would start, I would stop within the first minutes thinking that I'm just repeating stuff or not going into enough detail.**

 **Also, seriously thank you all for your support. Whether new or old, it means the world to me that literally anyone likes what I write.**

 **Second of all, here's the chapter.**

 **Third, here are some reviews I'll answer:**

* * *

 **skater551 : Woo another update! It would be, in my opinion, pretty cool if nidus was actually like taken over by the infested and is part of it instead of just multiple arenas of shooting. Either way love the story and of course would love to see more**

 **Peace!**

 **Response : Yeah, I'm trying to keep it close to how the game works, yet not make it completely boring, such as including grinding or bland mission details that we've all done multiple times.**

* * *

 **Rebelblade71 : (I'll answer the ones which are more recent, as you've already read the past chapters)**

 **Response : Thank you for the support, m'man. I intend to pair most of the Tenno in the story, but you did give me the idea to pair Rell with somebody. Maybe in this chapter, maybe later... Dominus was pretty much my way of including Primes since I couldn't just change warframes like Harrow or Chroma all of a sudden into primes, even though they are the first ones.**

 **As for the nerf on Chroma, the main thing that disappointed me was his armour. I built this story around the fact that he is pretty much a badass juggernaut when modded correctly, but his armor goes down really fast and isn't as useful as a Rhino's or Valkyr's.**

 **I actually have yet to read the warframe comics, but I definitely will and see if I can use them for the next chapters!**

* * *

 **Silver566 : Project 0P71C0R Opticor?**

 **And was Hayden supposed to be or be based on Hayden tenno?**

 **Is the dominus mode gonna be the dynasty skin? Cause thatd be sick**

 **Response : 1. Spot on. 2. Let's call him a successor. 3. Dominus is prime, which in my mind nearly looks like Dynasty. But not quite the same thing here, you'll see.**

* * *

 **Guest : Absolutely love it so far**

 **But I wish the lemon was more intimate**

 **Response : Thank you! I did feel like the lemon was a bit rushed at the end, but I'll make up for it later, hopefully.**

* * *

 **zXabadonXz : Amazing story I've started playing crhoma again because of it**

 **Response : Thanks! The more the better!**

* * *

 **Fourth, italics is for locations, special effects sounds, mind speech, thoughts, transmissions etc.**

 **Fifth, see ya at the botton.**

* * *

"Hey, Drake," greeted Ian as he and Drake spotted each other in the Conference room.

"Hm?" asked the Tenno while reading some report papers.

"May I ask what those sounds were last night?" the Inaros user asked with a smirk and Drake ceased all movement.

"Uh.. I think there were some faulty pipes.. I'll get someone to work on that."

Ian moved in front of the Tenno and raised an eyebrow. "Really? Since when do pipes moan?"

Drake's eyes flickered across the room as he tried to find a way to close the conversation without casualties.

Suddenly, Rell enters the room while rubbing his eyes. Drake looks at him with a hopeful expression as the Tenno examines his team mates, before opening his mouth to speak, "Are we talking about Drake having sex?"

Ian began laughing as Rell looked confusedly at them. "Come on, dude. You two were so loud that probably the whole Dojo knows you fucked. Good on ya, though, I'm proud," Ian said and patted the Chroma user, which gave a deep sigh and put his face in one hand.

"I might've found traces of Negan..." he muttered through his palm.

His friends' eyes widened for a second before they turned serious. "Are you sure? I thought-"

"We all thought. But no, he is not dead. He somehow survived the Orokin purge. I intend to find out how."

* * *

 _Nuovo, Ceres_

"Chroma. Come in. Over," said Ian through the comms and Drake sighed.

The three were on Ceres, looking for information from a captured colonist.

"Why the hell are you using warframe names as codenames?" asked Drake, his voice being drowned out by the intense rain hitting the metal.

"It's more badass and tactical! Come in, Harrow. Over."

"Harrow here. Over."

"Seriously, Rell?" the squad leader asked. "As if these guys don't already know who we are or what our warframes are."

"Just shut up and talk like us, Chroma. Don't screw up the mission!... Over," shouted Ian and the three all entered at the same time through their assigned vents.

"Greenie at 6 o'clock. Over," muttered Ian and took aim with his Vectis, then pierced straight through the Grineer's head. "Kill confirmed."

"For fuck's sake... Greenie? Seriously?" whispered Drake to himself and moved forward through the middle vents.

The three stopped once they jumped down the vents, though. Further ahead in front of them patrolled what looked like a more muscular and armored Grineer Trooper, with blue instead of orange paint, and a red sheen going across its whole body.

Drake raised his fist as a 'wait' sign and slowly walked forward, metal creaking under his steps. Suddenly, the trooper turned around.

"Shit, just fire!" shouted the Tenno and readied his armor as the soldier seemed to channel his energy and create a snow globe alike Frost's around him. "Are the Grineer testing their new toys or have we just been lucky so far?"

Rell was calmly staring at the new threat while spinning his Thurible and muttering some kind of words.

All of a sudden, sand began pouring from the room's roof and enveloping Ian, creating a tornado of sand. He passed through the trooper's shield with ease and thrashed him around.

Drake took a step back to allow his teammates the honours, as Rell's warframe lit up in red and thrusted his arms forward, ridding their foe of every limb.

"Just like old times," said Drake and shook his head with a small smile under his warframe.

The three took down every remaining enemy with ease as they neared their target. The wardens were taken down simultaneously with perfect synchronization, then the colonist rescued.

* * *

 _TCO Dojo, Space_

Drake entered the Conference room after having interrogated the rescued 'cultist', in order to review the audio logs from their session. Fortunately, the former hostage was more than happy to give any information in return for them saving him.

Unfortunately, the information didn't help at all.

"This doesn't add up.." he whispered to himself, his head in his hands.

"What doesn't, dear?" asked Rosa with a cheerful smile as she came through the doors, then sat on his lap to look through the papers. She quickly skimmed through them as Drake spoke.

"When we were appointed as Alphas and told of our roles, Negan was what I could only call a Paladin, like an Oberon, but even more so. His one and only task was to purge the unclean, the infested. All of these reports so far only talk about an infested warframe..." the young man explained. This wasn't the same friend he remembered.

"Maybe it's not him? Maybe it's just some rogue warframe?"

Although he knew Rosa had good intentions, her question stirred feelings of dread inside of him.

"The details don't correspond to any other warframe. I'll find out soon. The warframe is still extremely dangerous, whether or not it's Negan."

* * *

 _Larunda Relay, Mercury_

The Perrin Sequence. Seen from the outside as your usual Corpus, just not hostile to everyone. From the inside, as Myconians from Mycona, a colony which survived off the infestation by collecting the materials made by the blight.

At least that's what Ergo Glast, the leader of the syndicate, told Drake when he went there for information about the topic and Infested materials.

"Unfortunately, Nef Anyo has taken the children of the Myconians along with their resources and keeps them as hostages. Who knows what the Corpus are doing to them..." the man heavily sighed.

"Onion... who? I'm not hearing anything about what I asked. Also, why didn't you contact me sooner? I would've had the guy's head on a pike in the middle of the Relay," said Drake and pointed at his warframe resting by the door of the syndicate.

"The warframe you are looking for has been hunted by Anyo's mercenaries, seen as an even more valuable source of infested material than the Myconia- wait, you don't know Nef Anyo?! He is in the Corpus Board of Directors and one of the most well-known aristocrats in the system! How could you not-" Ergo nearly shouted at the news until he got interrupted by a phone call. "Glast. Mycona? Siege? What do you mean you can't control them anymore?!... Tenno, the Myconians need your help, the Infested are assaulting their last position!"

* * *

 _Monolith, Phobos_

As expected, the so-called Myconian base was situated on a damaged Infested Ship, floating by Phobos. Colonists scattered around, trying to save whatever they could and head for the docks. "Since Nef Anyo took our resources, he left us defenseless against the hordes of Infested inhabiting the ship," said Glast in a hurried tone as the pair ran to the camp. "I was told that the situation was under control, that the Infestation was safely contained!"

The scene before Drake looked like a horror movie. Blood splattered on the walls, infestation growing through airlocks, guardians fighting off a few infested with no real chance.

The Tenno quickly put his eye to his shotgun's sight and blew away a charger trying to feast on one of the guardians, then charged into the fray.

Few minutes later, Effigy was guarding the middle of the room while completely maiming any infested approaching it, and Drake was using his ice breath to create walls and block any entrances.

Suddenly, he heard a scream from behind. One of the Myconian warriors got jumped by a leaper which crushed his arm under its body, while desperately tried to pry it off but his teammates were busy fighting the ever-growing numbers of mutants.

With impossible speed, the Tenno unholstered one of his pistols and shot 5 quick bullets while welding with ice. Fortunately, 2 of them hit their mark and punched one giant hole in the leaper. On the flipside, the Myconian warrior was still in need of medical attention, but that would have to be dealt with later.

A full 15 minutes passed before the siege on the camp stopped and everyone could breathe freely as Drake finished the last touches. The guardians were cheering before silence creeped into the room.

"Get me connected to the Corpus boss. I'm sure he is open to negotiation." sighed Drake with exhaustion, then rested on the ground. The Myconians loudly cheered for him and their guardians, some of them attending to their injured warrior.

"What is it, Ergo Glast? Do you not know how to lose? I already told you there's no getting ba-" said an especially ugly Corpus in some kind of armor with credits rolling on it, stopping himself mid-sentence upon seeing a Tenno.

"Look, I'll get straight to the point. I need you to release the Myconian children and also to give me some information about an infested warframe you have been hunting," quickly spoke Drake.

"Where have I seen you before...? Do you even realise how expensive your requests are? Unless you are some kind of ente-"

"Look. You take the offer, or you join Alad V."

Although Drake knew that intimidation never worked on the likes of Nef, he still hoped he could just skip the assassination part. He tapped his foot while looking at the projection in front of him which seemed to analyse the Tenno.

"I... see. I knew I recognised you from somewhere. But guess what, when you have as many credits as me, you can buy any protection you want. Nobody can find me, not even your precious Lotus!" smugly laughed the aristocrat. "Tell you what. Have you heard about the Index before?"

* * *

 _The Index, Neptune_

"WELCOME, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" boomed a robotic voice with an uncommon cheerfulness. Drake stood in a dark elevator while looking at a screen which showed a Cephalon with... a tie? And a microphone? "TONIGHT, WE HAVE A VERY SPECIAL GAME FOR YOU!"

Clara shifted uncomfortably behind Drake, tapping her claws one by one on her rifle, other hand holding it. He glanced at her which made her straighten and nod.

At her side stood Rell, slowly moving his Thurible in circular motions, one hand resting on his heart. He seemed to have his eyes closed, so Drake left him to his business.

Rosa was playing with her arrows by Drake, switching them or flipping them around, but she still seemed a bit nervous simply by her body language.

"ON ONE SIDE, WE HAVE THE RICHEST MAN'S TEAM, THE BIGGEST ENTEPRENOUR AND PROUDEST CORPUS, NEF ANYO!" the robot shouted even louder and received deafening cheers from other Corpus workers.

Drake remembered his conversation and deal with the Corpus boss, hours ago.

 _"I can't say I have. Mind enlightening me?" said Drake, suddenly interested._

 _"It's a little game I put together. You put money in, I put money in, whoever wins takes it all. Simple, really." the man smirked and awaited for the Tenno to speak._

 _"What's the catch?"_

 _"I will give you back the children of the Myconians... in exchange for... let's say five hundred thousand credits."_

 _"What about the information you said you hold about the infested warframe?"_

 _"This is just the first round. We'll see after that."_

Suddenly, the elevator jerked and came to a halt, pulling Drake out of his thoughts. "ON THE OTHER SIDE, WE HAVE THE TENNO!" cried the robot and the crowd boo'ed at them.

The doors opened, blinding the Tenno with the stadium lights. Drake walked out with his head held high, then gently motioned for Rosa to follow. Rell calmly strolled out of the elevator with his hands behind his back, then offered his hand at the nervous Valkyr, which accepted it.

"Fast and easy, people. There's no reason to be afraid, just normal, bland Corpus enemies. They have every single reason to be afraid," whispered Drake and the four moved in the middle, with 4 other Corpus.

Each one seemed different unlike the casual worker, but still similar. They donned some kind of skates and were all equipped with either Provas or even Lectas.

"3...2...1..." began to count down the announcer and everyone aimed down their sights. "START!"

Three seconds. That's all it took the Tenno to annihilate their opposition. In an instant, Rosa disappeared with her invisibility; Clara popped a Corpus' helmet off, then pounced on him, ripping his throat off; Rell extended his hand in which he held his Knell, creating a perfect hole through one's head, then with amazing precision, took out his Scourge and impaled the other foe through his neck.

Drake had already blown away the last one with his shotgun before the others finished their jobs.

Everyone was silent as the Tenno collected the Index Points and then dropped them off in the designated bank.

"Uh... AND THE TENNO SCORE! SURELY NEF ANYO'S TEAM LET THEM HAVE A BIT OF FUN!"

The four completely decimated the enemy Corpus units, killing them on sight and depositing point after point, with nobody dying on Drake's team. It was simply too easy, but they knew this was just the first match.

Drake knew that although the Corpus were a lot of things, none good, they were smart.

"LOOKS LIKE THE TENNO WON! WILL ANYO RAISE THE STAKES AND TAKE OUT HIS TRUE TEAM?"

* * *

 _TCO Dojo, Space_

The game finally ended, and with it the squad of Tenno also settled down back in the dojo. "Good one, everybody! That was just the beginning, though. Unfortunately, I need to continue until I get the information from our target," said Drake with a nowadays rare cheerful tone as he scanned the room. His gaze lingered on Rell and Clara for a second, seeing the Valkyr user secretly eye the other.

"We can continue if you want..." stated Rosa but received a sideways nod.

"There's no reason to exhaust you guys, and besides you have better stuff to do. I can just call the others to come help."

"Implying cutting down Corpus like butter is exhausting," muttered Rell, looking healthier than before yet still donning a sinister aura around him. His eyes moved towards Drake right as Nef Anyo called him.

"You know, Tenno, I had to keep one of the children here. Neewa is a really special one, and besides, I heard the Myconians really need her. Supposed to be some kind of infested prophet." the man instantly began with a smirk.

"This was not the deal. You said you'll release all the children if we win."

"Oh but she is not a mere child, as I just said. You'll have to win again if you want to rescue her too. I'll give Glast his holdings back if you win, to sweeten the deal. This time I expect you to bet with everything you have though, including your liv-" Nef was about to say but got interrupted by Drake smashing the communicator.

"Fucking Corpus..." he muttered to himself as the other three watched with worry. "Who's still in?"

* * *

 _The Index, Neptune_

The four found themselves waiting in the elevator yet again, but this time they were prepared, and rightfully pissed. Except Rell.

"I have a bad feeling about this, Drake," he simply spoke and ammo checked his pistol.

"Shit..." he heard in response. Drake knew that Rell's premonitions were no joke. "Stick to the plan."

"WELCOME BACK, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. THE LONG AWAITED MATCH BETWEEN NEF ANYO AND THE TENNO IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!"

They all gathered yet again on the middle platform of the arena. This time, Nef brought the real heavy artillery. An Ambulas unit, a Bursa, a Hyena and a Raptor. The worst of the worst, Tenno hunters in the whole meaning of the word. "3...2...1... BEGI-"

Silence. Drake's vision blacked out and he couldn't hear anything anymore. All of a sudden, his vision comes back and he finds himself back at their bank deposit, completely weakened and out of breath. "What the fuck... was that?" he asked over the team comms through heavy breaths.

"You just dropped dead right as the countdown ended! There goes Clara, too! What is happening?" cried Rosa in a panicked tone.

Drake quickly brought up the communicator linked to the clan Dojo, hoping someone would answer.

"Yo, Mike here. Who this?"

"Mike! I need you to go as fast as you can and get Albert. He must be somewhere in Larunda!" shouted the Tenno while gunning down a Hyena. "Nef, you motherfucker! We know you rigged the game!" he shouted and saw the Corpus smirk on the screen.

"UH OH! THIS ISN'T LOOKING GOOD FOR THE TENNO! MAYBE NEF ANYO'S ACE TEAM IS TOO GOOD FOR THEM?" shouted the robot which received cheers from the crowd.

Rell destroyed the Bursa and quickly took the Index Point, which electrocuted his whole warframe and disappeared.

Rosa shot down the Raptor and attempted to score the point, only to instantly fall to the ground upon reaching the banking station.

"Yes, Drake?" asked Albert looking worried.

"Long story short, Nef Anyo challenged us to his Index game, our credits in exchange - Goddamn Ambulas! - for releasing captured children from a Myconian colony. Fucker rigged the second match and we can't do anything! We just drop like flies randomly and can't score!"

Drake kicked the Ambulas behind its knee, bending it down, then ripped off its top gun. "Ideas?"

"I'll have to monitor what's happening and if there are any signals..." Albert whispered and typed something on his warframe's arm. "Go ahead with the game in the meanwhile!"

Minutes later, the game was heavily in favour of the Corpus. The score was 40-3 and still going, all of the Tenno's points coming from Rell's ingenious idea of using invincibility to pass through to the banking station, which failed to work 90% of the times, as they would get assaulted and interrupted.

"Located it, Oceanum, Pluto! Hang in there, try to ask for an intermission!" shouted Albert all of a sudden and closed the conversation as fast as he started it.

Drake refreshed his Vex Armor, then quickly sprinted to the enemy's banking station. Just as he planned, one of the Corpus proxies followed him. The Ambulas yet again. Perfect.

He dodged its first few attacks, then climbed on its back and ripped off its gun once again, aiming it at the banking station's circuits and firing.

"LOOKS LIKE THERE WAS AN ACCIDENT WITH NEF ANYO'S BANKING STATION! WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK AFTER THIS BREAK!"

* * *

 _Oceanum, Pluto_

"Alright, everyone, spread out! Hack into any data vaults you find and shut them down before Drake and the guys lose the match!" shouted Albert and braced his Strun. "Neville, take A. Mike, go B. Matt and I got C."

Just as expected, there were control panels and cameras surveying the match all around the base. Nef didn't even try to hide the fact he was cheating. Mike ran accross the vault's walls while invisible, knowing better than to activate any floor sensors. Right as his fingers touched the control panel, he heard the alarms go off as Vault A disappeared from his HUD. Within the first few seconds of browsing it, he saw the codes for the forcefield. "This is it!" he shouted.

* * *

 _The Index, Neptune_

Rell jerked his head towards the door of the elevator as he felt rejuvenated. "They succeeded."

Drake didn't pay attention to his teammate as he typed something on his arm's holographic interface. After he stopped, a gun began materializing in front of him, so he put his arms aroune it.

"Oh come on, you kept that thing?" sighed Rosa as she inspected the weapon.

The elevator screeched to a halt. They reached the arena yet again, preparing for the final match.

This time, they all walked to the middle without wasting any time. Upon seeing the Tenno, the Corpus proxies turned their heads towards Drake's weapon, recognition obvious in their body movements.

"HERE WE ARE, FOR THE FINAL MATCH! FINAL ROUND! THIS DECIDES WHO TAKES IT ALL!"

Drake held the Opticor in his hands, finger on the gigantic trigger while aiming down the sights. "3...2...1..."

As soon as he heard the first consonant which followed the countdown, he slammed his finger on the trigger. The gun created a small ball of energy at the muzzle for a split second, which instantly became a massive laser that raised the temperature in its vicinity.

Drake's foot bended the metal under the warframe's hard armor, using his leg to keep himself from getting pushed on his back.

Before the enemies could attempt to dodge the incoming laser, Rosa used her zip-tie arrow and bunched up their enemies.

Rell lowered his Knell as he watched 4 of the best and most expensive Corpus robots be turned into literal ash, then kept his gaze steady for a second while the laser continued and destroyed the wall that separated the two stations. "...I understand we are done playing Nef Anyo's game, Drake?"

"Let's round 'em up," responded the Tenno as they deposited point after point, beating the Corpus' score after just 1 minute.

"5...4...3...2...1...AND THE TENNO WIN!" they all heard the robot shout for the last time.

* * *

 _Larunda Relay, Mercury_

"I literally cannot thank you enough, Tenno. You went above and beyond the call of duty for the colonists. All that's left now is for us to sacrifice Neewa for t-" began Ergo Glast while Drake ignored him, until the last part.

"Hold the fuck up. Sacrifice her? What?!"

"Tenno, I found out something," interruped the Lotus, which greatly surprised the Tenno. "Neewa carries a virus called the Triuna. It basically makes her immune to the infestation, at the cost of her lifespan. The Infested fear hybrids, which is how the Myconians were able to get their materials so far from them. I could cure her and help her."

Drake looked at Glast as if he was about to kill him unless he started talking. "It is true. The virus is spread from mother to daughter. The Myconians need her in order to be able to live and continue their traditions!"

"Lotus, how old is Neewa?" asked Drake with a sigh while staring at the Myconian.

"15."

"Tenno have been doing worse things from even younger ages. She can make her own decisions. Ask her what she wants. I've wasted enough time with this bullshit," he muttered and slowly walked back towards the Relay's docks, leaving Glast petrified.

* * *

 _Orbiter, Space_

Drake was stretched on the ground, scratching Wyvern as he relaxed. "So much time wasted for nothing..."

"Operator, you have one new transmission."

 _"Mister Drake."_ the Tenno heard being said by a girlish voice, Neewa appering on the transmission.

 _"I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving me, and thinking about me. Nearly nobody so far asked me what I wanted to do, all except decided for me. So... I decided I want to be cured and live with the Tenno. Besides, dad was a Tenno too! Maybe you even know him, he calls himself Nidus!"_

* * *

"Yes, Sir Anyo?"

"Arrange a meeting with the Corpra. I found a target for them."

* * *

"Councillor?"

"CALL THE GRAXX TEAM IN. THEY HAVE A LEECH TO SMASH."

* * *

 **AN: Kinda proud of that cliffhanger ending, yet at the same time I feel dirty for doing it. Neewa will be alive in this story and actually be quite crucial to it.**

 **I'll have to make some kind of list with Beta, Omega and Alpha warframes at some point here.**

 **Can't wait to get to the open worlds!**


End file.
